Early this morning, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan held a press conference to announce a lot of new products hitting the Japanese and Asian markets in the coming year. The big news for Japanese gamers was the Japanese launch of the PS4 – February 22, 2014 – but of interest to American gamers was two new Vita hardware announcements.

Coming hot off the heels of a price drop announcement at Gamescom, Sony unveiled a new PlayStation Vita that follows in the footsteps of its predecessor by being lighter, slimmer and available in more colors. Sony says the new Vita is 20 percent thinner, 15 lighter and has six color variations, including blue and pink. It will be out in Japan on October 10, but there’s no word yet of a U.S. release.

The far more interesting announcement, however, was the PS Vita TV. It’s a little set-top box that can play PS Vita game cards as well as digital PSP and PS one games. As the name implies, it can play all of these games on your television with a DualShock 3 controller. It can also play all the video content available on the PSN and streaming services. Finally, it can serve as a PS4 remote play hub for gamers that want to stream their PS4 titles on another TV in the house.

The PS Vita TV will be available in Japan on November 14 for around $100. There’s no word yet on a launch for the U.S. market, but Sony may announce something soon.

[Image: Playstationjp/YouTube]