Sony Ericsson Chief Executive Bert Nordberg has all but confirmed the PSPhone in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Bert said he was aware of the rampant speculation within the media that a gaming phone may be on the way.
“There’s a lot of smoke, and I tell you there must be a fire somewhere. Sony has an extremely strong offering in the gaming market, and that’s very interesting.”
Bert was asked why it has taken so long for the companies to consider a PlayStation Phone:
“I haven’t dug into that history, but the future might be brighter.”
Mr. Nordberg went on to say he would like to make ‘a lot of noise’ with a brand new product at the Mobile Word Congress in Barcelona in February and that he was glad to be working with Sony due to the complicated legal issues in creating a gaming phone.
“Sony is of course a very strong brand, and why shouldn’t we use that? Gaming, including content, is a very interesting proposition.”
Bert’s comments are the clearest indication that a PlayStation Phone is on the way; perhaps it’s big ‘new product’ for February. How a gaming phone will tie in with the also-really-doesn’t-exists-honest-guvnor PSP 2 is anyone’s guess.
Source: Wall Street Journal
NotoriousGTT
I’m still not sure it would work as a proper gaming device. I’m not really convinced with the iPhone as a gaming device. All I can see is a phone with connection to the PSN and some app store style titles. Nothing different from what we have now really.
bunimomike
You have a phone that can connect to the PSN and plays games?
jonny_bolton
The Sony Aino has remote play and there’s a couple of games you can play through that, like PixlJunk Shooter. The problem with this though is that O2 doesn’t allow streaming over 3G so you have to connect to a WiFi hotspot just to use remote play. Not all that great really.
bunimomike
Right, so it’s pretty much gimped from the off. For my money (and as an iPhone owner) I’d love to see Sony finally release a phone with all the power of a PSP and the app-connectivity that can rival iPhone and iTunes.
The iPhone slams the PSP to the recycle bin for the market it’s taken with mobile gaming. From a gamer’s perspective it’s unbelievable but there they are, working with a business model that’s obviously created a very respectable revenue stream. Hopefully, Sony have learnt from this and realised people don’t need nuclear power plants in their pockets and just want a fairly powerful device with a wonderful user interface and the ability to buy games like on the iTunes store.
Actually, if you look at the graphical grunt of the iPhone 4 you can’t help but think Sony’s offering would be even more of a gamers/developers choice with real buttons! God knows I don’t touch a game with touch-screen (read: fake) buttons. Devs will rejoice the world over.
tonycawley
I reckon they’ve got to be one and the same haven’t they? Surely the Psp2 is the Psp phone. I really don’t think there’s room in the market for both as seperate entities. I still have my doubts over the battery for a gaming phone though.
3shirts
See my comment below
BrendanCalls
and my comment below too, LOL!!
3shirts
I think they might end up with a similar offering to the Iphone/Ipod Touch situation where the PSPhone is basically a PSP2 with phone features.
BrendanCalls
Hasn’t apple proved that a gaming device and a phone combined is a viable product.
If Sony are gonna release 2 seperate handheld gaming platforms the stronger product is gonna kill the weaker one off, therefore wasting millions and millions of pounds in development costs.
Im gonna be the first to say it here, the PSphone will be a failure due to the release of the “defintely, but might not, exist” PSP2, ;-), and just an after thought the PSphone should’ve been released 2-3 years ago it would have been h8ge then I reckon, boat has sailed now though
BrendanCalls
* huge, LOL!!
Tuffcub
No, Apple have proved that if you make something shiny enough and brainwash people they will buy anything and then continue to buy exactly the same thing every year when they create a “new version” by making the corners a bit more rounded, repeat ad nasuem until they get really, really innovative and make a BIG VERSION OF THE SAME THING.
*sigh*
bunimomike
It’s a shame you can’t see the device for what it is. A very good smart phone with a wonderful user interface and a store packed full of games and apps that people obviously want to buy. Don’t get me wrong, I want to bury the Apple fanboys that whoop and holla at every dukey that Steve Jobs takes just as much as you, but you can’t get around the fact that they were pretty much first to create such a strong device.
Even with the failings of the launch phone it left other smart phones (from a consumer perspective) in its trail. It took most other manufacturers 18 months to get near. However, the final battle is on the store front. Non iPhone users can bang on all they want about hardware specs but as a business model, iPhone is hard to touch because of the money it makes. It’s the very reason why small 1, 2, or 3-man operations are designing so many apps for it and other mobiles wait for the best apps to eventually come to them.
Thankfully, that’s slowly changing as I don’t want the iPhone to be the only dominant smart-phone in the market of mobile gaming as it means they call all the shots, all of the time.
BrendanCalls
Anti-Apple fanboys are just as bad as Apple fanboys
Tuffcub
I’ve got an Ipod, Im not Anti Apple at all, I’m just anti-arse-licking-every-single-thing-Apple-does. Certain people can not see fault with them.
bunimomike
With you all the way on that one, TC. People who buy every bit of hardware from a manufacturer just because of loyalty. Sure, there’s ultimately nothing wrong with blowing that much cash, if you have it, but surely it’s best to look at what’s available before tugging out so much wonga!
BrendanCalls
It certainly sounded a lot like an Anti-Apple rant as opposed to anything specific to do with the article.
I made the point that Apple have made a viable product, which combines a phone and a gaming device and all you replied was a rant about the way Apple continues its business.
TSBonyman
Quick – somebody get out the fire-extinguisher!
Oh well, i guess this phone is intended to take some of the iphone market and subsequently steer people towards psp2/ps3 for a proper/fuller gaming experience?
Porcupine_I
why can’t i help myself and see O.J. Simpson in front of my minds eye, when i hear the Name “Nordberg” :-D
On Topic: if they talk about the PSP2, i would advice them to make it a standalone mobile Gaming system with optional upgradeable Smartphone features via cardridge.
Sympozium
Zoidberg?
sesameseed
I think the story is a lot more fun if you replace “Nordberg” with “Zoidberg” :)
cc_star
If the PS Phone = the iPhone then the PSP2 needs to = the iPod Touch
If they are serperate devices Sony will splinter the market & neither device would be as popular as it could be if they were essentially the same device and importantly share the same store.
There’s a 1.8ghtz dual core phone out very soon, there’s already one on the market with 768mb of RAM, so the cutting edge processing power & memory is already there, if the PSPhone/PSP2 are around that then they will be top of the tree with Sony’s gaming heritage.
I’ll be on board if this happens, but I certainly won’t be if they splinter their market with two seperate device that don’t share the same catalogue leaving phone owners pissing around with Minis (or equivalent) when the iPhone is already running Epic’s Infinity Sword
bunimomike
Thing is, matey, they just need a solid platform to work with. Every gaming generation teaches us that it’s not all about the specs. Sony could simply have something a smidge more powerful but still take the world by storm by having a stunning bit of kit WITH buttons and decent enough grunt to handle “proper” games. The very thing the iPhone suffers with is the lack of tactile buttons so when people want a meaty-sized game, they’re simply not going to enjoy it as much. If Sony had a great platform to code for, an array of buttons and analogue sticks and a store front that sold everything from “Lite” games to full-blown titles, they’d clean up*.
*Do better than they’re currently doing. ;-)
Grey_Ghost13
I want to keep my PSP and phone seperate. I would just like to have a phone that could remote play.
cc_star
Hardly any games support it anyway, although it would be more than handy to be able to control your PS3 to go on the PSN store remotely.
Sony just need a website (compatible with smartphones) where you can remotely queue downloads, like xbox.com… Remote play wouldn’t be such an issue then
Grey_Ghost13
I don’t even use my PSP for remote playing games, I just use it to browse the web, rather than use the PSP browser, watch iplayer and use the media that I store on there, also I browse the PSstore and que up downloads. I just want that on a phone over 3G rather than having to rely on a WiFi hotspot and keep my PSP for gaming on the go.
Jas-n
All this time I’ve had my Aino, I’ve never done that, mainly because the PS3 needs to be in remote play, or with remote start enabled, which is stupid.
I don’t see why the PS3 can’t support wake on LAN, but it can wake up at a set timeframe, surely there isn’t much that needs to be done to enable that
hazelam
what about smoke machines? o_O
Charmed_Fanatic
Would like a Sony/PSP phone, wuld buy this if its good!