Vita TV is an Interesting Addition to the Micro Console Space

This past week, Sony made a couple of very interesting Vita announcements. First off, after dropping the price of the Vita to $199 in August, Sony announced that a redesign of the handheld will be arriving in Japan in October (with other regions assumed to follow). The new Vita is lighter and will allegedly have a slightly improved battery life.

The bigger new though was the announcement of the PS Vita TV, a mini console that not only aims to take on Apple TV, but could also throw a monkey wrench into Amazon’s rumored console plans.

The PS Vita TV will retail for $100, plugs into your TV and works with the DualShock 3 controller (which most of us PS3 owners already have). It can play downloaded PSOne and PSP games, as well as downloaded physical Vita games. The console also runs apps like Hulu and Netflix, and will have some cross-functionality features for PS4 owners.

Right now, the PS Vita TV has only been announced for Japan, but there’s obviously a very good chance it will be coming to the US as well.

Last month I wrote about the potential of Amazon’s rumored Android console, and I think it’s still a good bet we’ll see that this year. BUT, Sony could really disrupt this space with the PS Vita TV in the US. Instead of a so-so library of Android games, this $100 console would provide a proven library of PS classics, as well as a taste of new games from the Vita library. And if the Vita TV plays well with the PS4, there will always be that temptation to upgrade for those that start with the Vita TV.

So, while the main focus of the gaming industry continues to be on the major console releases this holiday season, I find this budget console race to be getting more and more fascinating. We as gamers will continue to benefit from there being more choices at multiple price points out there.

Who will be next to jump into the ring?