Sony Ericsson’s much-ballyhooed new “PlayStation phone,” the Android-powered Xperia Play has gone on sale in 11 countries around the world. Although Germany, Russia, UK, and Taiwan can be counted among the countries who are now selling the hardware, the United States is not on that list yet. Sony Ericsson has mentioned that six additional markets will be added to the list over the next two weeks — which may include the U.S., because a leaked Verizon document stated as much.
More than 60 titles will be available at launch, including such familiar titles as Worms, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, and Assassin’s Creed Altair’s Chronicles HD. As a PlayStation-certified device, the Xperia Play will have ongoing downloadable additions from the massive library of more than 2,400 PlayStation games. Starting off, the Xperia Play will open up access to such classics familiar to old-school PlayStation gamers, like Destruction Derby, Cool Boarders 2, and Crash Bandicoot.
Adding more gaming fuel to the fire for the Xperia, the system is backed by more than 20 developers, such EA Mobile, Gameloft, Digital Chocolate, and Glu Mobile.
As of now, it looks Sony Ericcson is far better positioned with its Xperia hardware platform than Nokia was with its N-Gage gaming phone from late 2003, which launched at an expensive price point, an awkward hardware design, and a limited selection of games. At this early state, even though U.S. pricing through Verizon has not been announced, the Xperia Play seems like it will not fall victim to the same issues that cripped the potential of the N-Gage.
[Source: CNET]
