Sony Ericsson talks PlayStation phone; shows PowerVR demos

Thursday 30th August 2007, 08:08:00 PM, written by Farid

While not promising the release of a PlayStation phone anytime soon, Peter Ahnegard - head of Sony Ericsson’s gaming unit - entertained the idea of a PlayStation branded gaming phone being an idea that is being seriously considered by the company at present.

Answering gaming-related questions from Pocket Gamer during the recent Leipzig Games Convention, Ahnegard had this to say to a question about a potential PlayStation Phone: “Up until today we haven't felt we could launch a PlayStation phone because it wouldn't be recognised as a true continuation of that brand of products.” He continues, “It's obviously something that we're looking at but right now I can't really comment.”

Talk of a PlayStation branded phone contrasts with claims made by Ahnegard in that same interview, saying that his company was not planning on marketing any cell phone as a gaming phone, akin what Nokia did with the N-Gage, but that “games will be factored in the consideration of more devices going forward.”

It’s not the first time the Sony Ericsson phones have been linked to Sony Computer Entertainment’s PlayStation. During the E3 2007 press conference, Phil Harrison, president of SCE World Wide Studios (SCEWWS) used a Sony Ericsson cell phone as an extension of the Home interface, SCE’s take on 3D online communities.

Also worthy of note, on the topic of technology Peter Ahnegard showed 3D demos from PowerVR running on Sony Ericsson products; a hint perhaps at what to expect on the GPU front for any potential PlayStation phones.
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Tagging

playstation ± phone, pvr


Latest Thread Comments (5 total)
Posted by xymor on Friday, 31-Aug-07 05:36:20 UTC
They really should consider 2 skus and keep psp backwards compatibility, but take out the umd drive(let people rip games from umd to more power efficient media or offer them as downloads).
Consent in a psp2 architecture, cpu, ram, gpu, wireless, touch-sensing, etc and make a handheld console with just those basic features but under U$200.
Then they can build on top of that platform more features, cell phone, multimedia, video-calls, etc, a platform where they can go crazy on the extraware and charge premium prices.

That would assure psp is competitive as a console and as capable as they wish as a high-end portable console/multimedia/smartphone/tricorder/etc. :grin:

Posted by Farid on Monday, 10-Sep-07 20:17:42 UTC
http://www.developmag.com/news/28428/Feb-launch-touted-for-Sony-Ericsson-game-phone
Quote
Develop's sister magazine Mobile Entertainment reports that Sony is gearing up to unveil a new games-focused mobile handset in February 2008.
*The Sony Ericsson phone will not boast PSP branding*, says the report

Posted by Shifty Geezer on Monday, 10-Sep-07 20:56:52 UTC
Would it be PSP compatible though? If yes, they have a great little gaming phone. But the demands of PSP - drain on battery, need for large screen - make it unsuitable for a mobile. Given that report, my guess is it's a development independent of Sony's gaming division.

Posted by patsu on Monday, 10-Sep-07 23:50:43 UTC
Unlikely to be PSP compatible.

From the blurb and what we have seen so far, it sounds like it will have:
* Motion control/aware, possibly with gaming button(s)
* Playstation Home UI (The lean one)
* Probably J2ME-based (Sony mentioned Java scripting for PS Home)

Posted by roninja on Tuesday, 11-Sep-07 10:05:19 UTC
most likely OpenGL ES 1.1 based though would love it to be ES 2.0 but alittle too soon for OMAP3. Hoping the phone has an OMAP2420 inside and not the lower spec PNX4008 as used in the P990,P1i,W950,W960,M600 UIQ3.0 series.


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