After years of rumours, mobile gaming is set to explode this Spring as Sony Ericsson finally release their much-vaunted ‘Playstation Phone’, the Xperia PLAY.
Full disclosure – we at JOE are a little fed up with gesture-controlled mobile phone games, especially retro titles where our enjoyment is crippled by having to use our fat thumbs to control the entirety of ultra-complex titles – we’re talking about you, Street Fighter IV on iPhone.
Thus the upcoming Xperia PLAY has one feature which any gamer or mobile phone junkie can appreciate – a slide-out gaming pad with a D-Pad, shoulder buttons two analogue touch pads, and the four iconic PlayStation icons: circle, cross, square and triangle.
The handset will also have access to PlayStation game content provided through the PlayStation Suite initiative, currently under development by Sony Computer Entertainment and due to launch later this calendar year. EA are the first major Western publishers to pledge their support for the device, so you can expect sessions Need For Speed, Sims 3 and FIFA 11 to get interrupted by pesky callers.
It may not be as pretty as the PSP2, the ‘NGP’, but the PLAY is still a loker
As for the actual phone itself, the PLAY will run on Gingerbread (version 2.3), the latest version of Google’s Android platform and is expected for release in certain markets as early as next month. As you may expect, little is known of the phone’s capabilities outside of its gaming usage but it is expected to be the first of many ‘Playstation Phones’.
According to Kazuo Hirai, President of Networked Products and Services Group at Sony Corporation, he is “delighted to see Xperia PLAY as the first PlayStation Certified smartphone to hit the market. Xperia PLAY provides a unique consumer offering and is yet another example of great products and services coming to market that leverage Sony’s strong assets.”
With the Xperia PLAY set for release soon than you’d think, let’s hope Sony’s efforts evokes can evoke a sea change of thinking from mobile game developers. Sure, we don’t think finger control for titles such as Angry Birds but veterans gamers demand something a little more challenging now and then.
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