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Observers who criticized Sony's apparent disinterest in continuing to promote the struggling PS Vita handheld will be shocked to learn of Sony's flurry of announcements at a Japanese event last night. Among the top subjects were the announcement of a new, cheaper, slimmer Vita, as well as a totally new "Vita TV" console.

The new Vita purports to be 20% thinner and 15% lighter than the current Vita on the market, has one more hour of battery life, and 1GB of onboard storage. The standard Vita's 5-inch OLED screen has been replaced with a standard LED screen, and the power cable is now a standard micro-USB slot.

This, along with the recent $50 price cut, indicates real support from Sony in the face of struggling sales, and also is a quick boost of relevance for the handheld considering it is being pushed as a companion device for the Playstation 4. What really came out of left field, however, was the announcement of the Vita TV.

The PS Vita TV is a little device, as pictured above, which contains the internal hardware of a Vita but none of the external hardware- save for ports and the like- which make it a handheld device. Instead, it can plug into a television set by way of an HDMI cable and be used to play Vita games and use the Vita operating system on TV. This, presumably through use of the PS Vita's Remote Play feature, allows users to wirelessly stream footage from their Playstation 4 to other TVs. It turns the Vita into one big interconnected media hub, which is an interesting response from Sony in the face of a competitor so heavy on media that they chose not to include video games in the first commercial.

For anyone a little confused about the Vita TV's usage (I certainly was), Sony released this video to accomodate:

The new Vita, or the "Vita 2000" as it has been called, will be priced at 18,900 yen (about $190). The Vita TV will be available for 9,954 yen (about $100) with a 14,994 yen ($150) bundle releasing with a 8GB memory card and Dualshock 3 controller. No US release has been announced yet.

These headlined a night of many announcements, including more information on the PS4-exclusive Deep Down and the Japanese release date for the Playstation 4 console: February 22nd, 2014.

Comments

  • Avatar
    pioshfd
    10 years, 6 months ago

    Huh, I might actually get a Vita now.

  • Avatar
    Mete
    10 years, 6 months ago

    I'm not completely opposed to the idea of getting a VitaTV. However, it still uses those damn proprietary memory cards.

  • theottomatic91 Avatar
    theottomatic91
    10 years, 6 months ago

    This sounds pretty cool honestly considering getting a vita tv now.

  • dumon Avatar
    dumon
    10 years, 6 months ago

    I'm gonna get that Vita TV. Terrible name, but I'm gonna get it.

  • Toast Avatar
    Toast
    10 years, 6 months ago

    The Vita TV will be able to play PSP and PS1 games as well as certain Vita games upon launch in Japan. They confirmed games that utilize the touch screen on the Vita won't be compatible though.

    Here's a list of the Vita games that are confirmed to work on the Vita TV at launch (it's in Japanese though, so better use that google translate):

    http://www.jp.playstation.com/psvitatv/game/psvitalist/

    The list covers a bunch of the games that I would love to play on the big screen, so I'm definitely getting this the moment it comes over the US.

  • Accolade Avatar
    Accolade
    10 years, 6 months ago

    I would consider the Vita slim if the quality of the screen output is not noticeably lowered.

  • MilkyAlien Avatar
    MilkyAlien
    10 years, 6 months ago

    An extra hour of battery and a proper charging port is greatly appreciated but I don't know if I'd trade in my old one to nab this should it come to the UK.