October 10, 2014: We recently updated this review to reflect recent new hands-on impressions.
Most years, the news out of E3 is is dominated by the latest flashy trailers featuring zombies, commandos and dragons, and this year was no exception. However, buried in Sony's usual hoopla this year was a tiny box that could have enormous significance for electronics giant. The product? PlayStation TV, set to debut in the U.S. on Tuesday October 14.
It's an unassuming black box a little smaller than a deck of cards, and as such might not seem to hold the same techno-majesty as Sony's PS4 or the cyber-future cachet of its Project Morpheus VR headset. However, if handled correctly, the unassuming PlayStation TV could be a very important product for Sony, acting as both as a low-cost gateway to a Sony gaming experience for casual players stepping up from smartphone games, as well as a new avenue for hardcore gamers to make their hobby more flexible.
Sony released a similar device called the PlayStation Vita TV in 2013. A Japan-only product, Vita TV allows users to play native Vita games through their TVs and was viewed as something of a curiosity outside Japan. PlayStation TV's hardware is almost identical to the Vita TV, but for its western debut it's been rebranded and given some loftier ambitions. During its E3 conference, Sony positioned it as a streaming media set-top box, presumably competitive with products such as Roku 3, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV, and priced to match at $100/ €99 (about £58, AU$105). While all of those devices include some form of gaming features, none comes close to the size and quality of Sony's existing libraray. When PlayStation TV arrives on October 14, it will also offer access to a library of nearly 700 high-pedigree games from Sony's extensive library of PS4, PS3, PS1, PS Vita and PSP games. Available titles include such classics as God of War, Killzone, Final Fantasy X, Metal Gear Solid, Twisted Metal and Borderlands 2.
In addition to the base box for $100, Sony will offer a $140 (about £83, AU$149) bundle that will include a DualShock 3 controller, an 8GB memory card, and a copy of The Lego Movie: The Video Game.
It's hard to overstate the importance of a device like this for Sony. If done right. it could offer a unique value proposition in both the set top box market and the gaming space. However, a recent hands-on with the box left us wondering if PSTV will be arriving fully baked.
At their E3 presentation back in June, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America Shawn Layden said that in addition to playing native Vita games, allowing remote play from PlayStation 4 and providing access to Sony's PlayStation Now game streaming service, the box would, "give you access to video and music streaming services." Industry watchers assumed that meant it would ship with apps for the services that have become standard on these devices, Netflix, Amazon Instant, Hulu Plus, Pandora, Spotify and others.
Indeed, at E3 I spoke with Sharon Kapitula, platform planning manager for PlayStation TV, who told me Sony was, "looking to meet our audence's needs for the apps they're looking for," adding, "if you look at other PlayStation products, we have a lot of content coming from third party partners. We're looking to leverage those partners again."
However, at a recent preview event in New York City, Sony reps were cagey about the device's media capabilities, at least at launch. I was told that the company "has not announced any entertainment stuff" and that at launch Sony was "focusing on PS4 and the way PlayStationTV can extend it." To be clear this was not a denial that these services will exist on the device, but if these features were in place, we would expect Sony to be making much more noise about them (or be willing to discuss them in the slightest).
The reps did mention that at launch the box would provide access to movies and TV shows via the PlayStation Store. But while this may pay off the letter of their E3 promise, it's a far from from the spirit of their announcement. Interestingly there was no mention even of Crackle, Sony's free, ad-supported video streaming service. Devices like this are easily updated, of course, and we would be shocked not to see apps for the major streaming services get patched in. Still, we found Sony's reticence about these aspects of the box surprising.
While we've seen very strong demos of the device's RemotePlay capabilities when paired with a PlayStation 4, the October preview event featured only native Vita games. One potential stumbling block to the PSTV as a gaming device is the fact that the games that run natively on the platform were designed for an extremely specific piece of hardware with a unique set of controls. Specifically, the PSVita features front and back touchscreens which many games use gestures as key parts of their control mechanisms. There is no direct analog for these motions on a conventional controller, so without modifications, motion controls do not map to the DualShock 3 controller.
Sony reps pointed out that one of the four games loaded on the system, Killzone: Mercenary had been reworked to map the game's gesture controls onto the control sticks. We should note that Killzone performed remarkably well for a 3D shooter running off such a tiny piece of hardware and its translation from touch to sticks seemed smooth. Other games, however, clearly had not been fully converted and suffered from incorrect on-screen directions (any that involves swiping), lending more to the overall impression that, just a few days prior to launch, Sony might not have all of PSTV's ducks in a row.
Historically, Sony has struggled to create meaningful synergy between its multifaceted products and offerings. Executed correctly, PlayStation TV could provide a key way for PlayStation fans to access their Sony devices and content along with third party services such as Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant. Perhaps more importantly, it will provide an inexpensive avenue into gaming for the casual gaming audience. With the right services and software, this device could threaten not only its set top box brethren, but also Microsoft and Nintendo in the console space.
Here's what it looks like plugged in
I got a chance to play Diablo III on a PlayStation TV streaming from a PlayStation 4 via Remote Play and it both looked and played beautifully on a large TV. Frame rate matters less in this type of game than it does in others, such as racing games.
Naturally real life streaming performance will be limited by internet speeds both upstream from your PS4 and downstream to your Playstation TV, but a Sony rep assured me that under ideal conditions the box is capable of delivering a full 1080p stream.
Just enough room for all of the essential ports
Remote play has been available on PlayStation handhelds since the PSP and PS3 era, but the proposition of being able to pack tiny box on a trip that let's you play your PS4 system back home on a big screen TV in hotel is a strong one. Sony reps were quick to point out, however, that streaming performance is ruled by Internet connection speed, and that the most stable environment for Remote Play would likely be inside the home on a second TV.
Access to PlayStation Now, Sony's cloud gaming initiative that promises more than 700 titles at launch (down from Sony's original promise of 1,000, but we won't quibble), is also promising. Sony does have some work to do on the pricing of PlayStation Now, which in its beta outing has been outrageously high. We'd like to see them employ a Netflix-like subscription plan (possibly as an extension to its existing PlayStation Plus subscription service). We think the all-you-can-eat model would be most attractive to gamers if Sony can figure out a way to make it economically feasible.
After so many years, it's easy to forget just how excellent Sony's legacy library is. Between kids who were just tots when Sly Cooper was hopping around on his heists and casual gamers who've discovered games thanks to smartphones but have never played Uncharted 2, there is a wealth of untapped consumers Sony's legacy library might appeal to.
True to its PS Vita TV roots, PlayStation TV will also be able to run Vita, PSP and PS1 games natively. The box will only come with 1GB of onboard storage for downloaded games, but the system will come with a slot for PS Vita memory cards, allowing users to add up to 64GB of storage. This is somewhat aggravating, however, as PS Vita cards are both proprietary and expensive. Sony has no plans to allow the use of external hard drives at this time.
One concern about Sony making a streaming media box is that the company might revert to its old habits of locking down content avenues or limiting them to Sony content. With the wide array of third party streaming services available on PS3 and PS4, we've been optimistic that Sony has its head screwed on right about the ways consumers expect to access content. One thing is clear to us, no matter how the box functions at launch, to succeed in the streaming box market it will need to achieve parity with their set top competitors.
It's called PS Vita TV in Japan, but will take on a broader name in the West
In all, Sony looks to be delivering an extremely compelling product in PlayStation TV. Achieving parity with it's streaming competitors should not be a challenge, and it has them far outclassed when it comes to gaming. In addition, it could be attractive as a gaming-only proposition, providing a very attractive $100 price point to those who might balk at paying $400 (about £238, AU$426) to $500 (about £297, AU$533) for a state of the art system. The ability for PS4 gamers to stream state-of-the-art games to it is icing on the cake. We're looking forward to getting our hands on PlayStation TV and putting it through its paces when it launches on October 14.
No comments:
Post a Comment