Never bought a PlayStation TV? Neither did anyone else, here’s why

Wander into the electronics section of a Target, point to a PlayStation TV and ask “What’s that?” It seems like a simple question. It seems like a simple answer. Given the success of Sony’s Playstation 4, you would think the device, which launched Stateside in late 2014, would get off and running without hitch. Instead, the device lamented on shelves and, less than a year after its North American debut it’s taken an over 50% price drop at most retailers.

In a recent interview, Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida, sat down to explain exactly what went wrong in the PSTV’s story. Saying, "It's a hard concept to explain. You could say it's a mini-console, it's a video streaming device. If we say it's a mini-console, like other mini-consoles, people expect a better device like PS4 or Xbox One. It's short in that delivery. When you say it's a video streaming device, there are other devices with higher def video. It has some unique things like remote play of PS4 games. It can do many things, but it's not easy to say this one thing is extremely good. I think that's the reason we were not able to convince people at the original price."

Not helping the cause is the fact that the line of original intended support was drastically cut when a lot of the initially announced compatible games had been removed. Appealing titles such as Silent Hill and Valkyria Chronicles that appeared in early announcements disappeared from the updated list at the Playstation Knowledge Center. Add on the fact that the system never really hosted much streaming ability for subscription services like Hulu and Netflix, it became much easier for consumers to justify devices such as Rokus or Apple TVs.

While the system hosts some pretty neat tricks for PlayStation 4 owners in the way of remote play, there was just to little to get excited about. In the same interview, Yoshida went on to explain that Sony’s larger support for their handheld, Vita, isn’t what it was a couple of years ago, either. "We are not making games like Killzone Mercenary, big budget Vita games anymore…"The expectation of the graphical quality and size of the world for these type of games have risen after the launch of PlayStation 4. The same thing happened with the PSP. People were so excited to be able to play PS2 graphics games on the go. After PS3 launched, expectations grew. The types of games on PSP were not as attractive."

PlayStation TV is currently retailing at $39.99.