Sony Ericsson unveiled the Xperia Play at Mobile World Congress last month but the company showed it off for the first time in the United States at the Game Developers Conference and said that the device will be capable of using Havok gaming tools in order to try and push smartphone gaming to the boundaries.
If you don’t know, Havok provides tools that are used in high-profile games like Epic Mickey, Fallout New Vegas, Uncharted 2, Demon’s Soul and Bioshock 2. Its tools are cross-platform, so this should really give the Xperia Play a boost when it comes to high-quality titles.
The deal with Havok is just one of the first steps that Sony Ericsson is taking to make the Xperia Play a hit among the mainstream gamers and the gaming community. The company also said that it will be teaming with the Major League Gaming league of professional gamers and the Xperia Play will be the official device of MLG. The move could help propel the device into the mainstream, or at the very least, get it some more recognition with the hardcore gaming audience.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play rocks a 1 GHz processor with embedded Adreno CPU graphics processor and the games I’ve seen have looked pretty darn good. It also rocks a 4-inch screen and a slide-out game pad. The game pad does feel pretty comfortable and it’s good for certain types of games but this definitely adds to the bulk and heft of the handset. This is not a skinny phone.
Look for the PlayStation-certified device to launch on Verizon in Spring and we’re hearing a late March release could be likely.