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Possible new PlayStation Portal model pays homage to the Vita's OLED

While much of the focus on PlayStation's next steps is the PS6 and PS6 Portable , the two-year old PlayStation Portal could be getting a revamp according to those pesky internet rumours.  Update : Hints at pricing are around £/$250-299 for the new model, but everything remains deeply in rumours territory. Presumably the goal is to hit the 10% (currently 7%-ish) adoption rate among PS5 owners, something that would make it a bone fide hit gadget.   The recent February  PlayStation State of Play  saw no announcement. But, PlayStation needs to make Portal more a core member of the PS5 family, rather than the distant cousin that most of its appearances suggest.  As the improvement in connectivity and streaming tech, proven by many gamers enjoying their PS5 or PlayStation Plus streamed content from around the world, an updated Portal Pro could be on the cards.  Possibly featuring a 120Hz display and an OLED screen in honour of the mighty Vita, that'd be coo...

Google's Nexus Player, another box to challenge the PlayStation TV

Sony can't or won't run the PlayStation TV as a proper set-top box. There's no Netflix at launch (or at all in Europe), with conflicting reports on if it will ever work. Add in no HBO, no iPlayer, etc, and it seems Sony only wants you to use its cack-handed Movies Unlimited service. Widening reports suggest its Remote Play feature isn't all that good, and its games roster is hampered by random incompatibilities or license restrictions.

Putting another boot on PlayStation TV's jugular comes Google's Nexus Player to join the crowded micro-STB market, launched alongside the latest Motorola-built Nexus 6 and a HTC Nexus 9 tablet, it is another effort by Google at the living-room market after the arse Google TV project. It will be available in early November. And, if Apple launches a gaming-enabled Apple TV today, then suddenly every box for your TV does games, and in a less fussy way than Sony's device.


The Nexus Player is a $99 sleek puck-style device with a small remote and an optional game controller ($39) for all those Android titles. It comes with 8GB of internal storage, unlike Sony's crippling memory card concept, and offers superfast 802.11ac Wi-Fi. It plays all the major media services and plays at 1080p. At least the total price is comparable to the US PS TV bundle, including memory.

UPDATED: Video removed by NVIDIA 

Sony's only saving grace here is that Nexus Player will only be available from Google's own store. The difference is, millions of Android fans are aware of the device launch due to the interest in the phone and tablet. Sony's PS TV launch was barely registered by most of the tech sites.

Currently playing on my Vita/PS3/PS4/PS5


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