PlayStation in your pocket

MANILA, Philippines - The new Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY was introduced the other week to the local market with a host of games optimized for the only PlayStation-quality gaming experience on an Android smartphone. 

Sony Computer Entertainment and leading game publishers have provided top gaming titles preloaded and available for download from the Android Market. 

A limited time exclusive agreement with EA Mobile, a division of Electronic Arts Inc., the world’s leading mobile games publisher, will bring EA SPORTS FIFA 12 on Android. The game will be available to the device worldwide by the holiday season. 

Sony Ericsson has also partnered with Tozai Games to bring the critically acclaimed console hit and gaming franchise “Lode Runner” to Android for the first time. From November, it will be available exclusively on Xperia PLAY and other Xperia devices.

A new partnership with world-renowned Square Enix will bring much loved titles such as “Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light” exclusively to Android on Xperia PLAY also by November. More hit titles from Square Enix will follow in the coming months.

The Xperia PLAY launches in the Philippines bundled with freebies such as a car charger, screen protector and leather case. 

It combines Xperia smartphone functionality with new levels of mobile gameplay. The smartphone offers a 5.1-megapixel camera with auto-focus and geo-tagging, Google Services, sound recorder, Noise Shield, and Sony Ericsson Music Player, and also supports conference calls, document readers and document editors. 

It also features the Sony Ericsson-exclusive Timescape, an application which allows users to view all communications from one contact such as SMS, calls or e-mails in one go.

“The Xperia PLAY is primarily an Xperia Android smartphone that will have widespread appeal to a number of consumer audiences, including casual and enthusiastic gamers,” said Dennis Manzano, Sony Ericsson general manager. 

“A preloaded application will enable users to easily discover and download titles that have been optimized for gameplay on Xperia PLAY, access recently played games and see information about the games they have downloaded,” he added.

For local gamers, the smartphone’s official arrival in the local market had been a much-anticipated event affected by concerns regarding game availability. Users can find preloaded games from Sony Computer Entertainment and other leading game publishers while other titles can be downloaded from the Android Market.

The Xperia PLAY runs on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), which was developed with gaming as one of its strategic focuses. Coupled with a fast 1-Ghz Snapdragon processor and the Adreno 205 GPU, the phone delivers powerful and smooth graphics at 60 frames per second.  

This high-performance smartphone also expresses Sony Ericsson’s human curvature design language, fitting perfectly in one’s hand whether taking calls, surfing the Web or gaming.

“Gingerbread is a step forward with faster and lighter processes that are easier on the processor and so use less battery. Also, the optimized Snapdragon processor with a 1-Ghz CPU is designed for minimal power consumption so Xperia PLAY users can enjoy long hours of battery life and game time,” Manzano said.

The Xperia PLAY in the Philippines comes preloaded with the following game titles: Bruce Lee, Crash Bandicoot, FIFA 2010, Madden NFL 11, Star Battalion, and The SIMS 3.