Sony Ericsson finally confirmed the rumours of a PlayStation phone with a very expensive advert in the Super Bowl last night.
The phone is named the Xperia Play and runs the Google Android OS. There’s a slide-out game controller and if the Sony Ericsson’s Facebook page is anything to be believed it will hit the US streets on February 13.
So is it a phone first and a game platform second, or a gaming platform first and a phone second? Well from the name we’ll assume it’s a phone first, if you were looking for something that built on the most successful brand then it would be named the PlayStation Xperia and it wouldn’t be running Android.
Sony Ericsson are obviously hugely committed to the devices, as an advert on the Super Bowl is about as high-profile as you can get. People are still talking about the Apple Big Brother ad from 1984 and that certainly wouldn’t happen if it was premièred in the middle of American Idol.
There are more than 60 million PSPs in the World and we’re sure there’s not an Xperia with that many units. Is there really a market for phone users who want to add PlayStation games to their phone, only time will tell.
There’s obviously a market for it as the YouTube ad has already clocked up an impressive 300,000+ views in less than a day and the number is growing fast, but will that translate into sales. Let’s hope that in 16 years time we won’t be remembering the Xperia Play for the spectacular ad that heralded a giant failure.
At least there’s good news for developers. It runs Android so there’s no need to create apps for yet another platform.
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