Sony Announces VitaTV, stream your PS4 to a 2nd TV

Sony announced the Vita TV at their conference last night. Seems stupid amounts of cool for $100, comes with a DS3 controller (bundle pack is $150 and also comes with an 8GB memory card), you can play a good number of Vita titles on it as well.

"Outfitted with a PS Vita card slot, it also allows PS Vita TV owners to play Vita games on, well, their TV. They don't even need a Vita—just Vita games, this PS Vita TV hardware, and a DualShock 3. Oh, and a TV"

The thing that makes this a Day One, must have peripheral for me tho, having 5 TVs in the house:

"In the future, you will be able to use it to stream PS4 games on another television in your house via Remote Play."

The PS4 I get at launch will be hooked to our main home theater setup, but if my wife is watching something, I'd normally have to move the PS4. If I can just plug the VitaTV into another TV in the house and stream gameplay to it, this thing has pretty much paid for itself. I know it's not a big deal for a lot of people, but man, this is super exciting to me personally.

Also, you'll have access to any apps that run on the Vita, like Netflix, Twitter, Facebook, web browsing, Skype, etc.

Sounds like an Ouya killer - if it weren't already dead. I can also see them putting it directly into new Sony TVs. That would be kind of neat.

It fails to appeal to me tough. I'm going to buy the real consoles.

The $100 model is just the box. It costs $150 if you want a controller.

Also can you use a vita as controller input device and play touch enabled games too? That would be kind of cool in a nerdy way at least. ;)

Not at this time it seems. The press release said that a number of games would not be playable due to a lack of touch controls.

I have been reading that you can pair a PS3 controller with it. Can anyone confirm this?

Indeed, there's even a package that comes bundled with a DS3.

Noted in the OP.

DS3 at launch, DS4 later on.

OK, here's a question. Since the Vita can play PSP games, and since PSP games don't have any touch interface, does that mean we'll be able to play all PSP games on a TV as well? I certainly hope so.

@toowalrus: I read something along the lines that you can play PS1 and PSP games - at least the ones they sell in the PSN Vita online store. So I guess the answer is yes.

Edit: Here is the google translate version of the relevant part. (from http://www.gamer.ne.jp/news/201309090040/)

From the game of good old PS Vita TV is, "GOD EATER 2 (God Eater 2)" (NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc.), "Dangan refuted 1.2 Reload" (Spike Chun software), "Soul Sacrifice delta" latest work (Sony Computer Entertainment) mag, using the (DUALSHOCK 3) Wireless Controller PS Vita to be able to enjoy in the PS Vita on the first PlayStation game Archives, also more than 1,300 the PSP (PlayStation Portable) of the software titles ※ 1 It is possible that obtaining copyrights.

You can play PS1 and PSP games on it also. Might actually get one myself.

@jgf: This is good news, there's some stuff I've been wanting to play (Innocent Sin, Portable Ops, Chinatown Wars), but I just don't like playing handhelds at home very much. And the same goes for Nintendo! I'd love to finish playing Soul Hackers or Devil Survivor Overclocked, but man do I hate staring at my 3DS most of the time.

This thing seems like a dumb thing I would make up in my head. Except for the part where it's god damn real. And that's awesome.

Looks great, was considering buying a Vita but since I'd only use it for Remote Play / playing Vita games from home - this basically does everything I need it to do and more.

Could a Vita be hooked up to a TV to do the same thing? Like is there a way to output to a TV with it?

@rahulricky: No, Vita does not output. Also the Vita TV will not play Vita games that require touch controls.

@starvinggamer said:

Not all games, at least, right away. There is supposedly a limited ability to emulate touch controls for the purposes of menu navigation, but anything requiring quick touch controls is definitely out. At least, until we see what a DS4 touchpad can do with this device.

So it's a hundo dollar thing that I can use to play Vita games without paying more for a Vita? If there's ever a Vita game I want to play, I know what I'm buying (not a Vita).

Can you access the PSN Store with this thing to purchase and download vita titles, or do you need the physical copy?

this sounds pretty great. I like the idea of streaming it to other tvs.

@mooseymcman: While I bet there will be lots of folks doing the same as you, I can see this getting more of a userbase for Vita games (although it may marginalize some really cool Vita features like the camera/touch stuff) which is good for all Vita game-enabled players. More userbase = more games being made for the userbase.

For me, this means that I can play something like Gravity Rush on my TV while I'm at home, use the auto-cloud save to store my saves, and then when I'm in bed and/or traveling, pick up at that exact same spot on my actual Vita. That's a pretty awesome thing. Also, if it is true that Remote Play is not restricted to your own network (GAF and other sites seem to believe that you can set up your PS4 to be open to your Vita from anywhere), I could theoretically play my PS4 games at work during Lunch, and/or my Wife can play some games in the other room on her own profile while I'm not playing the PS4 proper.

This has a lot of neat uses. It also seems to put the Ouya in a worse light, but we'll see how either of these things pan out.

Playing vita games on a tv for $100? Definitely sounds cool.

Streaming ps4 games to other TVs in my house and have a sub par experience compared to playing locally? Dumb. Fortunately I still have the use of my arms and legs and luckily the ps4 doesn't weight too much. I'm pretty sure I can carry it over to a different Tv if the need arises.

@tearhead said:

Aside from lacking the cameras and touch, it is an actual Vita. Same core hardware, same OS. It can play downloadable titles just fine, though it only comes with 1 GB built in storage and you need a memory card to play larger titles.

Although I use my PS4 or AppleTV for streaming, I'd consider this thing. Since joing the PSN+ and enjoying the free games, I've been considering a Vita

I wonder what kind of weird reasons exist for some games not being available for download. Like, why is Peace Walker available, but not Portable Ops? And all of the Final Fantasy games except for Crysis Core. How weird.

This is actually awesome cause I can play the few Vita games I want to play without having to buy a Vita that I'd just play on my couch.

@toowalrus: Publisher's decide what is available digitally and what's not. So your best bet is to ask Konami and Square.

Compatibility list in japanese: http://www.jp.playstation.com/psvitatv/game/psvitalist/

Yes, Persona 4 is in there.

Sounds and will probably be pretty awesome, shame no Sony games appeal to me or else i would be going all in on Sony Ecosystem.