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Sony rumored to make PlayStation phone

By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 10:43 AM

Here we go again. Sony is reportedly preparing to make a phone that will be able to play PlayStation games.

Sony will be working hard with Sony Ericsson to create a mobile gaming device that can make calls, surf the web and listen to music. The handset should be able to connect to Sony’s online content services and it will likely be able to play many original PlayStation games. As always, there’s nothing official, but “sources close to the matter” said it should hit the market by the end of the year.

This has seemed like a logical progression for the last few years because the PSP is getting long in the tooth and the PSP Go was a tremendous flop. Additionally, we’re heading for an era of convergence that could make dedicated mobile gaming devices irrelevant. Apple has already positioned its iPod Touch as a quasi-gaming device and many big-name game makers have already created apps for the iPhone. It’s not just the bigwigs, as PopCap Games was recently able to make $1 million with its Plants vs. Zombies game in only nine days.

Sony may have the pieces to make a PlayStation phone work. For all its occasional weirdness, I think Sony can still design some lust-worthy gadgets. The iPhone has shown that you need strong hardware and a content ecosystem to be really successful in the smartphone space. Sony’s online service will have similar offerings as  iTunes, so it should have the content base covered (unless there’s a network outage). There’s still a huge question about what operating system would power such a device but, knowing Sony, it will be something proprietary.

Sony Ericsson has been struggling over the last few years and a PlayStation phone could be the thing to get it back on track. Again, these are rumors that have been kicking around for years, but this one seems to have a bit more juice behind it. Are you interested in a PlayStation phone?

[Via Phonescoop, and WSJ [subscription required], image source]

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About The Author

Marin Perez

Marin Perez has torture tested cell phones and smartphones for industry leaders like CNET and InformationWeek. He remembers when 4G was just a screen on PowerPoint presentations and is fascinated with the amount of innovation out there. Marin has spent a lot of time with BlackBerry and Android but he finally broke down a bought an iPhone to see what all the hype's about. He also has too many tablets.

  • Brad Sherrill

    Give me a Playstation phone pleaseeeeeee with a very large touch screen.

    Thank you very much

  • Marin Perez

    Would you want to control Playstation games only with a touchscreen? If this only plays older games, that could be an issue. Also, some of the stuff we’re seeing on iPhone and Android are already better graphically than PSOne. I’m hoping devs will have a chance to soup them up. Can’t wait for Jumping Flash.

  • AusFest

    Ill take this or an xbox phone. Hopefully it would have hard controls. My droid keyboard is awesome for gaming, so at least something like that would work.

  • DM

    I’m not sure that this is the answer for Sony right now.

    Yes, technology is converging and we will all eventually have one device for nearly everything we do. But that won’t happen by the end of this year. Or next.

    The technology needs to continue to improve, shrink, and become less expensive.

    The masses are mostly looking for social networking integration right now, which makes devices like the recently-released Motorla Devour great–it’s only $29.99 (see DevourDeals.com), so it will appeal to a large number of people. And it gets the job done.

    Maybe the PlaystationPhone2 will take off, but I don’t see the first one being a huge success.

  • taku

    Lets face it, the PSP is dated. Time for a change, not just a face lift, but advancement. Sony can create a PSP camera, PSP watch, PSP anything, it wont change nothing. Without a game changing innovation, Sony and SE will be stuck where they are not just in mobile gaming but in the mobile market as a whole.