We've been hearing whispers about a PlayStation-branded phone forever, but on May 26, Sony Ericsson will finally launch the Xperia Play. And no, I'm not really sure why it's called that, either.
Pre-orders for the Xperia Play start Thursday, priced at $199.99 with the obligatory two-year contract.
There are a number of games pre-loaded onto the hardware, too: Madden NFL 11, Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline, The Sims 3, Star Battalion, Crash Bandicoot, Tetris. Sony's promised at least 50 games will be available at launch, likely a mixture of PlayStation classics and newer titles.
There are other phones that will support PlayStation games; Sony's calling those "PlayStation Certified" machines. The central difference between Xperia Play and anything that's been certified, however, is touch controls vs. buttons. Xperia Play isn't unlike a PSP, whereas the controls for many certified devices are completely touch-based, intangible buttons. It's not the most appealing concept.
Sony's upcoming successor to PSP, tentatively titled NGP (next-generation portable), will not include native cellular support, but PSP featured a Skype application and some NGP models will sport 3G.
It was removed from the PSP's functions a while ago, and Microsoft now owns Skype, part and parcel.
The Xperia Play is just not compelling at all. At what market is it being pitched?
that's disappointing :(
been looking into android phones to replace my old blackberry and this would have been neat, if it was any good.
Oh wait, that seems to be everywhere except the US. Weird.
Protip: Don't waste your money.
I've had this for a month now and I'm happy with it. It's just a regular android phone with PS controls so if you're expecting more you'll be disappointed.
At the moment there are 5 PS1 games and 55 android games that are optimized for the controls.
Snesoid and Gensoid works great too, since you can program the buttons yourself.
If you hate playing games on the touchscreen and don't wanna bring a DS or PSP with you it's great.
That's exactly what I thought. I'm happy with my phone for now, could be a little louder, but oh well. It's good enough.
Just out of curiosity before I buy one, what makes this phone 'garbage' compared to other Android phones? I ask because I've been messing around with my buddies old original Droid, and even though it's old and slow, it still seems totally rad.