One of our favorite things about Sony Ericsson’s PlayStation-branded Xperia Play, is that it runs on Google’s Android OS. With a full slide-out control pad, this new PSP smartphone will be perfect for playing all your favorite emulated games, with a plethora of emulators and ROMs already available on the Android market. From what we’ve seen, Sony even focuses the bulk of all its marketing for Play towards the PlayStation Suite initiative, which brings some classic (and maybe not so classic) PSOne titles to the Android Market like Cool Boarders 2, Syphon Filter, MediEvil, and Destruction Derby.
There have been some mixed reactions so far, with reported low sales numbers for the aforementioned titles in regions where the Xperia Play has already been launched, but here’s where things get a little more interesting.
Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson tweeted a picture of the game running on the Xperia Play. In an interview with Gamasutra, developer Mojang confirmed that the game will be coming to the Xperia Play first, followed by other devices later. Mojang also mentioned how Minecraft would be adapted to other platforms, and how it will feature fully customized controls for the Xperia Play’s slide-out control pad.
"When playing on smartphones you will have a different screen size compared to PC, different hardware, different attention spans and thus the game needs to be customized to fit the mobile specifications," he said.
While the Xperia Play is already available in some countries, it will be launching in the U.S. this week exclusively on Verizon Wireless. No announcement of price, or release date for “Minecraft Play” (my term for it, not Mojang’s) has been given, or even how long of a timed exclusive this release will be.
Excited for some Minecraft on the go? Let us know!