I am sure those following what’s happening in the gaming world as well as gadget front have come across the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play(station) phone. A smart phone combined with a slide-in Playstation like controls. We have come a long way since the days of the Nokia N-gage. I think N-gage was one of those things that had the idea but obviously they failed in combining functional gaming and a phone. Since then we’ve come a long way with iPhone’s and Android based phones’ gaming qualities much thanks to the touch screen systems. But Sony’s approach takes the whole idea into another level.

Picture courtesy of Highsnobiety.

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play seems to deliver what people have been looking for. A combination of their favorite hand-held gaming console and a smart phone. Although the full details of the gadget are pending, we can expect release in March 2011, which is like few weeks away. But will this actually have a huge impact on the mobile gaming as a whole. Naturally I expect the system to boost the Android based game purchases and hopefully produce some seriously functional mobile games. But I see this as more like a stepping stone for Sony. I can imagine that we’ll see more refined versions in the future and didn’t they already produce 3D mobile phone in Japan? If they pack enough punch in a phone, would it be possible that these devices would actually (eventually) replace the Sony PSP? I think we’re still far away from that but who knows. Technology moves ahead at a crazy pace and to think of it, my PS3 will be like antique by the time my son gets into gaming.