Sony Set-Top Box Coming to North America in the Fall
At the E3 expo in Los Angeles, Sony announced that it will bring its set-top box/mini-console, the PlayStation TV, to North America in the fall, where it will sell for $99. The device has been on sale since the fall in Japan and other Asian countries, where it's called the PS Vita TV. Sony will also sell a $139 bundle that includes a controller, HDMI cable, memory card, and voucher for a Lego game.
Sony already commands a significant chunk of the living room streaming market thanks to the PlayStation console, but this set-top box will give consumers a lower-priced option. The PlayStation TV will let viewers access TV shows and movies in the PlayStation store. The box will also let users stream thousands of older PlayStation and Vita games by using PlayStation Now, Sony's upcoming cloud-based game streaming service. Households that already have a PlayStation 4 can use the box to stream games to a second screen, via a feature called Remote Play.
PlayStation Now will launch in beta on July 31. It will also stream games to the PlayStation 4, the Vita handheld, Xperia phones, and Bravia televisions.
It's not clear yet whether or not the Sony box will support popular subscription video-on-demand services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. If so, it could be a strong competitor to Roku and Apple TV.
Sony also announced it will sell a white version of the PlayStation 4 in September. It will come with a copy of Activision Blizzard's upcoming sci-fi game "Destiny."
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