Vita TV will take "a different road to market" in the West

Sony plans to take a very different approach to its streaming-centric Vita TV device when it eventually makes its way to Western markets.

The microconsole has got off to a slow start in Japan with sales of just 42,000 units during its first week of release in November. It’s currently available as a $99 standard SKU or as part of a $150 bundle.

Sony Computer Entertainment boss Andrew House has told Eurogamer that its release in the West, which is a market far more familiar with streaming content than Japan, will be handled very differently.

We see strong market potential elsewhere in the world, but it will be a different road to market for the US and Europe than has been the case in Japan," he said.

"It’s a very different landscape when you look at the US and Europe – much greater establishment of streaming video services, and much greater understanding of what that concept’s all about. It’s still very much in a nascent stage in Japan compared to some of the markets in Europe or the US.

"This may sound slightly counter-intuitive, but we wanted to launch in Japan first because I feel there really hasn’t been a critical driver or device that’s driven the adoption of streaming content overall.

"We felt there was therefore an opportunity to leverage the strengths of PlayStation Vita, which as you know is quite strong in Japan in terms of game line-up, but combine that with the features of a media streaming box, and offer something packaged newly for the Japanese consumer and possibly be at the forefront of creating a new market via that device."