Sony has officially announced the Xperia Play smartphone, commonly referred to as the PlayStation Phone. The phone/device is slated for release in March, and U.S. residents can expect to be one of the first regions to get this PlayStation Certified product. Verizon will be Xperia Play’s first carrier. The official announcement came today during the Mobile World Congress. Check out Sony Ericsson’s Facebook page for more images and info from MWC.
So why should gaming fans care about Play? Simple, the games. You’ll find legendary PSone games (50 total games at launch with 20 partners), including installments of popular franchises like Dead Space, FIFA, Guitar Hero (still ticking?), and Assassin’s Creed all available through the Android Marketplace. These games will be exclusive just for a limited time, and you can expect the majority of games to be ports.
There are tons of videos for you to check out below. It’s particularly encouraging to hear Aaron Duke, Xperia Play Produce Manger, say “We don’t want you to have to play just touch screen Angry Birds the entire time, we want you to play true console quality games.” Any Android game will be available on Play, but you can expect more “optimized” games coming specifically for the PlayStation Certified Phone.