Although Netflix seems to be on everything with a screen and everything that can be connected to a screen – I think they’ve said that themselves before – they have no plans to support PlayStation TV, which launched in the US yesterday and is currently devoid of video application support.
According to Gizmodo, you can download Hulu, Netflix, and even YouTube apps, but upon attempting to open them you’ll get an error message saying that the content “is not compatible with PlayStation TV”.
Since these are essentially PlayStation Vita apps – Netflix is still missing from that device in Europe, too – it’s understandable why they aren’t currently available, and while Hulu are working towards fixing the issue, Netflix statement is quite blunt: “We have no current support plans for Netflix on PS TV.”
Sony have released a statement on the issue:
PS TV plays entertainment content, including popular movies and TV shows that can be downloaded from PlayStation Store. At launch, PS TV has video streaming apps Crackle, Crunchyroll and Qello. Stay tuned for additional entertainment content we’ll be adding soon to the PS TV lineup.
Furthermore, it appears that many games – such as Borderlands 2 and the Sly Collection – aren’t compatible with the device. We had expected this, with Sony revealing the full list of compatible games before, but it’s a shame.
It looks as though PlayStation TV will be a device focused around PS4 remote play on a different TV as well as PlayStation Now games streaming, rather than a standalone media device.
Starman
There was also a bit of a uproar on the Ps blog yesterday because they removed several games from the compatibility list an hour before it went on sale. They even deleted peoples comments mentioning said games. Seems quite dodgy to me.
homerjnick
I’m still confused as to the benefit to me of PSTV? I have a dedicated TV for my PS4, I don’t want to ever play Vita games on a big TV…am I in the minority? Will gamers really use this to transmit their PS4 to another TV when wife/girlfriend/whoever wants to watch Downtown Abbey?
Will gamers really want to play Vita games on a big TV? I can understand at the odd occasion but will these features really be used a lot?
I just can’t see it myself but others may but I just can’t see the justification of price on this fir what it offers.
ron_mcphatty
Fair points. Although some of us may use it to pipe the PS4 picture to a second TV, maybe a bedroom or kitchen, I’m annoyed at the lack of Vita support in the console. I definitely would play my Vita games on a big TV, if just for the novelty factor, but the support for the console seems to be so poor that even Netflix can’t be bothered to adapt their app for it. Luckily, remote play works well on the normal Vita and that is getting plenty of love from the indie scene so that’s where my money will be going.
mrfodder
Supposed to be a patch coming to Borderlands 2.
Does anyone know if separate users can remote to ps4 or does it connect the main registered user like the vita version of remote play automatically? If not it really makes it useless and I wouldn’t even be able to share one with my son.
JustTaylorNow
Isn’t Netflix in denial now on console anyway, it saw a decrease in membership on console
MrYd
The study someone did last month? In the US?
It was down to 43% of Netflix subscribers using consoles. Still a large number, and I suspect (although Netflix haven’t said anything lately) the PS3 might still be the most popular individual Netflix device.
Things like Chromecast have taken off in quite a big way too. 28% of Netflix subscribers using them. Obviously the number of people owning such devices has increased a lot lately (but people using them for Netflix doesn’t quite seem to have kept up with the increase in people owning them, oddly)
The numbers using TVs (which tend to have a terrible interface for these things) has somehow gone up from 20 to 28% in a year.
And yes, that makes 99% before you add the numbers using a Blu-ray player (which is somewhere between 16 and 20%). I guess people use more than 1 device for Netflix.
What it doesn’t mention is the number of Netflix subscribers. 62% of the number 3 years ago is probably still a lot less than that 43% this year. The percentage has dropped almost 20% in 3 years, but the number of users has probably increased quite a bit.
BrianC
Can’t help but feel this product is DOA. They should just produce a dualshock attachment for the ps vita. That would solve my streaming needs.
psychobudgie
This in spades. See absolutely no point to this other than to further dilute the Playstation ecosystem with more useless tech.
Mr Blighty
I see every point in it. PS4 from another location, the vast majorty of vita games and a PlayStation Now for £80.
How can it NOT succeed?
psychobudgie
PS4 remote play works on Sony Android devices and I’m sure if Sony could remove themselves from their own sense of self importance it could be released for other devices. As for running Vita games on a big screen TV, no thanks, I have a PS3 connected to it.
Mr Blighty
Sony need to differentiate from other mobiles by features such as remote play to Sony phones. Its not self importance, its good engineering, wise investment and business strategy.
Good job you don’t run a business…. I suggest carrying on burger flipping.
Starman
And hows that mobile strategy working out for them? *cough billion pound loss*
Mr Blighty
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out Sony’s mobile problems. Sadly it clearly is too much for SOME, so I shall spell it out.
Despite being the best phones on the market, particularly the Z3 and Z3 compact, substantially better than anything Apple or Samsung has to offer, offering higher res screens, slimmer, more stylish, waterproof, bend-proof, cheaper, more customisable, and more connectible (Remote Play for example). However it’s nothing to do with the performance, price, looks.
Sony’s problems are 4 fold.
1/ Large Swathes of consumers globally only buy what they know. This to many means Samsung or iPhone.
1/ The US market is locked down, anti-consumer hellfest controlled by three networks, who all collude to create a cartel, there are no SIM-FREE options like in europe, you can’t buy phones and contracts independently, and they have no many radio bands that keeping your phone but moving carrier is almost impossible. This means if the 3 networks don’t carry your products, you don’t sell phones. American consumers are idiots that only buy what the television tells them to buy, and mobiles networks only carry phones that consumers make a fuss about. It’s a cycle that suits them NOT to have too many phone choices on the go.
2/ English speaking European consumers are braindead idiots that can’t think for themselves, or are too lazy to do any product research, and just look and American blogs to see what to buy. See point 1.
3/ Asia (Singapore excluded) isn’t interested in mid and high end phones, and these are markets Sony doesn’t target, as entry level phones are almost always loss-leaders (ask a grown up what this means).
So it’s not about how good Sony phones are, it’s about breaking the cycle, and Xperia Remote Play could be the thing that break the cycle. (I believe it will). There is no chance in this earth Sony will give this key away (or allow it to escape) to free to anyone that bought a competitors Android phone. Dream on. It will be locked to the hilt with DRM and root checks to ensure this competitive advantage stays. It’s certainly not a case of “self importance”, it’s a necessity. Development costs ALOT of money and it need to be earned back. Children may not understand this, but when they grow up and join the big boys world of business, it will all make sense.
Starman
Ok, so everyone’s too thick to see Sony phones are the best! Of course! Less of the petty insults please and I’ll converse with you again sometime.
Matthijs
To me, the PS TV would be the perfect bedroom TV device. My bedroom LCD is my old livingroom LCD. It’s about ad dumb as a non-SMART-tv gets. It features an on and off button as well as an input selector, that’s about it. Having media capabilities on PS TV would make me buy this a whole lot sooner than just as a PS4 extender. No netflix to me sounds like an epic fail, almost as big a fail as the PS TV missing HDMI-CEC and that funky interface.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have one of these but missing the basis makes me want to wait and see if it’s picked up by many and if so, wait for hardware revision 2.
Matthijs
Oops, just found out it might actually have CEC :-)
bunimomike
“has video streaming apps Crackle, Crunchyroll and Qello.”
Is that the Hispanic version of Rice Krispies’ strapline?
colmshan1990
Borderlands 2 just got a patch to allow for PS TV support, so that’ll be running on it soon. I imagine quite a few games will be getting a similar patch, although any game with a heavy reliance on touch for even a single command will struggle to appear at all I fear.