Western interest in Sony's upcoming PlayStation Vita TV has exceeded the company's initial expectations for the device, the company has said.
Speaking in a roundtable interview today with Eurogamer, Sony Japan exec Masayasu Ito said that the response had been "strong... more than we expected".
"Of course we are thinking of launching it in the US and Europe," he added. "But when it comes to the timing, we'll have to watch the environment and identify what other services are available in the US and Europe and whether we'll have to add other services."
This could include other media content - local services for each region such as iPlayer, 4OD or Netflix spring to mind - or other types of game streaming.
"We'll have to look at all of this before deciding on a launch in Europe and the United States," he concluded.
In a separate interview, Sony Computer Entertainment boss Andrew House explained that Sony had been "very encouraged" by the Western response. "It's been very, very positive."
House also went into further detail about why PlayStation Vita TV is launching in Japan first. Simply put, there is no existing competitor in the region for the device, whereas streaming media boxes in the West are more commonplace.
"The reason we wanted to launch PlayStation Vita TV in Japan first was because we think that there is a significant gap in this market even for a pure streamed TV box," he explained. "There isn't really a competitor here that's staked out a claim. And frankly, in my own view, Japan is a little behind the adoption curve in video streaming services.
"So we thought we could have an opportunity in Japan to really establish a leadership position by having an addition differentiated killer app - which is having our huge library of streaming games content."
As for Europe and the US, House concluded that the potential was there, but agreed that Sony needed to investigate each region's potential further.
"The landscape is different elsewhere. [Some of Vita TV's capabilities] are already part and parcel of how consumers view media there. We need to look at each of those markets and how we approach them."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-09-20-vita-tv-interest-stronger-than-expected-in-west-sony-admits
