Bye Bye love PlayStation TV

It's a sad day. Sony has revealed that the PlayStation TV, introduced to us in October 2014, was officially discontinued in late 2015, meaning the worthy entry in the microconsole market lived a life of barely one year. The reason? They claim that the PSTV was released to bring people back to gaming, and supporting interest in the PS Vita and PS4, both of which the PSTV had some nice features for. Sony is now saying that the PS4 and PS Vita are enjoying strong sales and so the PSTV has done it's job, and will be retired.

An official quote from them said:
"PlayStation TV shipments were terminated at the end of 2015 in SCEA and SCEE. Shipment is still continuing in SCEAsia (as of the end of February, 2016), and we have nothing to announce regarding the timing of termination."*
And another:
"PS Store for PlayStation TV will continue to be accessible, and PlayStation TV-related information will continue to be updated. In terms of applications/service for PlayStation TV, we will make further communications to users as necessary."*

A cruel twist of fate, huh little guy?



Sweet Double Talk, Sony!

Being the self proclaimed fanboy that he is, even this pudding addicted gamer can't help but notice how the statement on the PSTV being discontinued smacked of self-contradiction. Here on one hand we have PlayStation officials saying "There will be no PS Vita 2 because mobile devices have made for an unhealthy climate for dedicated handheld gaming devices", and then on the other they say the PSTV was discontinued because of the Strong sales of the PS4 and PS Vita.

Then let's not forget them saying that they wouldn't make first party games for the PS Vita anymore because people wanted modern console graphics on it and it just wasn't possible (don't get me started on how remote play, PS Now, and the few SCE games on Vita disprove that) so they wouldn't buy it, and then saying that the PS Vita was very healthy in the market. Sony, you make the greatest products and games out there, but you kind of lack communication amongst yourselves.
 
The PSTV revealed at E3 2014



Conclusion

Whether you buy Sony's explanation or not, the PlayStation TV has been discontinued for a few months now, despite us just now finding out this week. It's a shame too, because it's a fantastic little system so long as you know what you're getting when you buy it. And perhaps the biggest shame of all is that it would be a safe bet to say that probably half of the people on Vizzed have no idea what a PSTV is, or that it even existed prior to finding out about it being discontinued. Nobody knows about the little machine. But that's Sony for you, they make a great product, toss it into the market and say "If people want it, they'll find it".

But for the uninformed among us, the PSTV is a microconsole that's about the size of a credit card in length and width, and roughly one inch thick. It allows you to stream PS4 games from one television to another television, and also plays select PS Vita games, as well as supporting PlayStation Now services, and digital copies of classic PlayStation and PSP games (mine gets a lot of Harvest Moon use). It really is a very handy system, and it currently goes for about $50 online unless you buy a bundle for $99 which includes a DualShock 3 (it also supports DualShock 4) an 8GB memory card, and a download voucher for The Lego Movie game (game included may vary). If you're even remotely interested I suggest picking one up, and if you're a collector, definitely grab one as they were only produced outside of Japan for about a year, and only two years in Japan. They'll be extremely rare in comparison to say, any other console made by Sony, Nintendo, SEGA, Microsoft, or Atari. Will they be worth money someday? Who knows? But you'll have an interesting piece of gaming history that few others will.

*All quotes taken from GameSpot.

Eirinn : I'm sorry, but are they out of they're mind...? Are you telling me that they're prematurely discontinuing a successful piece of hardware because it achieved what they wanted it to...? Granted, I've never even heard of this. But I own nothing newer than a ps2, unless you count portable, in which case I have a GBA, have owned a DS Lite and my sister owns a 2DS. But this sounds like they're throwing away money. Is there anyone on earth involved in a corporation that has three brain cells left?

"It allows you to stream PS4 games from one television to another television, and also plays select PS Vita games, as well as supporting PlayStation Now services, and digital copies of classic PlayStation and PSP games" Can you say soft mod and pirate? I CAN! lol

m0ssb3rg935 : Eh, it wasn't fully succesfull, when it first came out in America, there were so many bugs that people were complaining for months, broken apps, compatible games not working, Gamestop even dropped the price for a regular new one from $100 to $30 just a few months after it got released, didn't start getting to be really good until much later.


It's a shame though, I wanted to get one.

I have a PSTV and it is a great alternative to buying another ps4 for the tv in my bedroom.
Sony is making a mistake discontinuing this...

Eirinn : I'm really bummed out that they discontinued this. Is this related to the Playstation "Now" service?

When I first heard about the Now service launching a few years back, I was excited about the possibility to use my Samsung Smart TV to play PS3/possibly 4 games without having to buy more hardware.

Sadly though, I forgot about the whole thing and still haven't had the chance to try it out. Mainly because I have a backlog of games to play on SEVERAL platforms.

Sounds to me that they realized it was cutting into their hardware sales, so they nixed it. But maybe I'm wrong.

m0ssb3rg935 : Like zanderlex said, the PSTV wasn't all that big. I personally think that's part of the reason it was cut. I don't buy their reason since even they don't seem to. Lol But it's a really good piece of equipment, especially if you're interested in PS Vita games but don't want to dish out the money for the handheld, as PSTV is much cheaper. Make sure the games you want to play are compatible first though. If anything, that was the PSTV's biggest problem: it lacked compatibility with some games that should have been supported. But like I said, if you go into the purchase knowing what you're getting, it's more than worth the $50 that a new one costs.

And yes, this is probably a bad move because the PSTV has a lot of untapped potential and could really branch Sony into a new portion of the market, but they struggle with capitalizing on opportunities. Their hardware and software departments are amazing, but they need to replace their current marketing department.



zanderlex : You can still buy them new for now, but once they're gone that's it. I'd go ahead and get one, in fact I plan to buy a second one myself partly for collection and partly as a backup in case mine goes out at some point.



Vanelan : I agree. The PSTV has a lot of potential, but Sony is too caught up with PS4 and the highly experimental PSVR to focus on the great potential they already have in the PS Vita and PSTV. This PSVR had best be a smash hit for them, because they're sacrificing everything for it.



Jordanv78 : I don't think it's related to PlayStation Now because the PSTV and Now were revealed at the same time as well as the ability to stream directly to TV's. I think it's more or less Sony trying to cut their less profitable systems, much like they seem to think PSVR will be ludicrous and so they cut first party game support to the PS Vita in order to focus their effort on PSVR (Shuhei said that himself). The PS Vita is actually making them a LOT of money, they just feel as though PSVR will do even better. Basically Sony started struggling in almost every non-PlayStation department and the PlayStation department is having to make up for that by making cuts to push the most financially beneficial stuff.

And at $50 for a new PSTV there wasn't much profit in it for Sony. They actually probably lost some Vita sales to PSTV because the PSTV was about four times cheaper than a PS Vita.

Eirinn : I personally don't have much faith in the VR movement at all. It didn't work in the 80s and it's way too costly. I, and I am sure plenty of other people, would much rather upgrade than spend $600-800 for an experimental tech that may or may not take off.

I never heard of it,honestly. But if G4 could not survive the TV market,PSTV was doomed from the start.

Vanelan : I don't have any faith in VR either honestly. But after looking at every VR entry out there now, I can honestly say without bias that PSVR is the best. It may not be the most powerful, but it'll be MUCH cheaper for most people (even if they have to buy a PS4 for it), and has party features so you can enjoy couch multiplayer with only one headset due to the ability to share what you see on the TV. If it can be a worthwhile investment then PSVR is the one to invest in. Still I expect it to flop.

This makes me sad. I really wanted to get one of these when I got a PS4. Curse you Sony! I love them so much, but they don't always show the love back...

And I agree that the VR movement is being ambitious a bit too soon.