VFX PS4 to debut in China on 20 March; as OTT service Vue readies to woo US audience -

PS4 to debut in China on 20 March; as OTT service Vue readies to woo US audience

After much delay to the launch of the latest generation of console, Sony’s PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita will be on sale in China on 20 March according to a report from Bloomberg.  The former will be priced at around $460, while the latter will be priced at around $210.

The console was to debut in the ‘Land of the Dragons’ on 11 January but got delayed due to negotiations with the Chinese government.

China opened the doors to consoles in 2013; 13 years after the government had banned foreign based consoles in 2000. Microsoft was the first company to launch its latest console Xbox One last September which initially cost around $600 but had a price drop later.

Sony too has jumped in to kill the cable TV with its over-the-top service (OTT) Vue. It is planning the US roll-out of its long-anticipated OTT video-streaming product – PlayStation Vue – within the coming days, said Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) president Andrew House in a report to The Wall Street Journal.

PlayStation Vue would launch within two weeks in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. The service is currently running in New York on beta stage.

The service – as with the recently-announced HBO Go – will let consumers bypass traditional cable and satellite subscriptions to watch TV shows and movies. Sony has secured rights of channels from several media companies including Viacom, NBCUniversal, CBS and Twenty-First Century Fox Film Corporation, but has been missing some of the important ones like ABC, ESPN and several other popular cable networks. Also, one of the hindrances that it might face is that the service is only exclusive to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 consoles, whereas one of its rival Dish’s Sling TV works on a variety of devices.