Are you pining for the newly-launched Xperia Play, Sony Ericsson‘s first ever PlayStation Certified Android-powered smartphone? Are you currently ineligible for an upgrade with your current phone contract, or do you just not like the idea of being tied to one in the first place? Well, Verizon Wireless has an off-contract option for you, but as expected this comes with a heftier price tag.
The moment many have been waiting for is almost here. While the Xperia Play, unofficially known as the PlayStation Phone, released in Europe at the beginning of the month, its release stateside was delayed for undisclosed reasons. It looks like the wait is almost over.
Analysts and gamers have been calling for a fusion between PlayStation and Sony Ericsson ever since the PlayStation Portable was announced, with many touting the “PlayStation Phone” as a true iPhone rival. While the Xperia PLAY is more Xperia than it is PlayStation, it is still the first truly dedicated gaming phone since the ill-fated N-Gage, with a slide-out gamepad and the might of Sony Computer Entertainment behind the product. But one month in to the device’s European release, has the phone been a success? Will it be big in the States? And what’s left to come for the device? We asked these questions and many more in an exclusive interview with Dominic Neil-Dwyer, Head of Market Development at Sony Ericsson.
Having both your mobile and your PlayStation handheld combined into one sounds like one of the greatest ideas ever, and that’s exactly what Sony Ericsson are hoping you think when you hear about the Xperia PLAY. Already out in most of Europe, and coming soon to the US, the phone has yet to prove itself as a serious contender in the gaming market. However, that may all be set to change as the phone manufacturer is preparing to make some big announcements at this year’s E3.
After talking to Gameloft’s Digital Marketing and Community Manager, Callum Rowley on the day of the Xperia PLAY’s European launch, we caught up with the publisher’s Managing Director, Julian Stocker to find out not only how successful the company has been with the platform, but about the importance of developing for “the next big thing”, and why traditional publishers have been so slow to adapt to digital distribution.
While the Xperia PLAY did suffer various launch problems, from a “freight issue” to a mobile provider pulling out from the launch due to bugs, the platform’s biggest publisher, Gameloft, has announced that the phone is “already a top device” in terms of game sales, beating out tough competition from other Android phones.
We let you know recently that we launched an app on Android to coincide with the release of the Xperia PLAY and Sony’s new partnership with Google and its Android OS-based devices. You spoke out requesting an app for iOS… Ask and you shall receive, we always say!
Today, Xperia Play launches in a select few European and Asian markets, including UK, Germany, Russia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Those of us waiting for the device to hit the States will have to wait until later this spring. To accompany the launch, Sony has announced all the games that are releasing during its first week.
With the Xperia PLAY launching today in the UK, and soon in the US, French publisher Gameloft has revealed its extensive line-up for the platform. Ten launch games, including several pre-loaded on the phone, make Gameloft the biggest PLAY publisher at the moment, so, to find out about why they are investing so heavily in the PLAY, what they think of the device, and what their future plans are, PlayStation LifeStyle chatted to Callum Rowley, Digital Marketing and Community Manager for Gameloft UK.
Portable game developer Halfbrick has announced that Age of Zombies is on its way to the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. Read More »
If you live in the UK and were thinking of picking up the Xperia Play when it launches tomorrow, you may have to think again as the choice of available mobile phone operators is increasingly diminishing. After O2 pulled out of the launch due to software bugs, a “freight issue” has caused both Vodafone and 3 to delay their release of the phone.
Sony Ericsson’s answer to calls for a PlayStation Phone, the Xperia Play, launches this Friday in the UK, and shortly after in the US. In the UK, mobile phone provider O2 was supposed to release an exclusive white version of the phone on the same day, but have delayed the release due to software bugs.
With the Xperia Play launching in the UK in only a week’s time, and the US launch not too far away, French publisher Gameloft has a truly unrivaled line-up planned for the phone, with ten launch titles, and a timed exclusive game coming later.
Soon, the Xperia PLAY is going to launch across the world, marking the very first PlayStation-certified Android smartphone. As soon as we heard that Android and PlayStation would soon go hand and hand, we realized it was high-time to get ourselves an Android app. And we did.
Although the UK will get Xperia Play in a week, a release date for the United States still hasn’t been announced, but the States may be getting Xperia Play sooner than the rest of Europe or Asia thanks to one of the biggest cell phone companies.
