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Sony Ericsson to Make Future Mobiles Like the PSP?

SE%20Games.jpg File this under "Rumor" for now, but the folks at Clipset are reporting that Sony is looking for some cellphone gaming action via their Sony Ericsson line of mobiles.

Like the high-end Cybershot and Walkman phones, Sony Ericsson's new "gaming" phones would pack a lot of media muscle and have an interface like the PSP's. The idea sounds feasible, but considering Nokia's success (or lack thereof) with the N-Gage and Sony's own success with the PSP, we're not quite sold on this just yet.

Sony Mobile Games? [Clipset]

10:00 AM on Wed Apr 4 2007
By Louis Ramirez
6,342 views
10 comments

Comments

  • The difference being that Nokia is a phone company that wanted to launch a gaming platform, where Sony is (arguably) a gaming company with that wants to take that mobile. Not that they couldn't screw it up, but I'd give it a better chance than the n-Gage.

  • This is the right direction to take by Sony Ericsson. I was in Hong Kong the past week and had the opportunity to use their subway system several times a day. What I noticed was that approximately 35-50% of the passengers use some type of electronic gadgets (either cell phone, mp3 player, DS Lite or PSP)... of the passengers playing games, I'd say about 60% use the Nintendo DS Lite, 20% use the PSP and another 20% fiddle around with their cell phones (and appear to be playing games). I was surprised to regularly see men dressed in business suits playing with the DS Lite.

    What I also noticed was that people don't use iPods in Hong Kong. 80% of them use their cell phone for music. The cell phone brand that I most frequently saw (at least 30%) was Sony Ericsson.

    If Sony improves cell phone gaming, it can really boost their market share in Asia. I rarely see people playing games on their cell phone in the US or anybody over the age of 15 playing any type of portable gaming in public (I play my PSP at home all the time, but not in public!! for god's sakes, I'm not a L-O-S-E-R!), but over in Hong Kong it's a common sight.

  • Image of Robotube Robotube at 10:35 AM on 04/04/07 *

    Tiniest PS2 Controller evar.

  • @weatherman: "not that they couldn't screw it up"... LOL. Yeah, let's face it, Sony's on a success binge right now. Let and right, only Sony success stories as far as the eye can see.

  • I think the PSP is a great form factor for a portable device. It's really only been Sony's poor game lineup (and the failed UMD) that has caused it's sales to sag. If Sony really is looking to re-work the PSP, giving it the ability (or option) to connect to cell networks (especially for data, but voice would be nice, especially if they put Bluetooth on the PSP for earpiece use) should not be overlooked.

  • I am really looking forward to Sony Making a gaming type phone. Sony Ericsson phones are awesome here in Canada, and I'm sure the gaming component would OWN!

  • Sony Ericsson to Make Future Mobiles Like the PSP?

    So miserable failures?

  • Why can't Sony Ericsson make a good phone first before adding even more gadgets to it? I've just handed back my w810i after a week as it was no better than my 4 year old Nokia 6310i.

  • NO SE! DON'T DO IT! The SE user interface is the best one out there. The PSP's? One of the worst, IMO.

  • w810i was an awesome phone. I moved to japan two months after getting one.. and none of the phones here are as good as the w810i. (sure they might all be 3g, with TV and GPS.. but they aren't as useful or as easy to use. )

    Sony make sucky consoles, sucky computers, and sucky mp3 players.. but imho SE phones are by far the best out there at the moment. I've been wondering for 2 years why sony keeps trying to bring out "ipod killers" when it already has an ipod killer in its SE Walkman phones.

    And since many phones now can do better than DS graphics, and have excellent, large screens, really the only thing holding back phones as game platforms is the control system.

    THe biggest threat to both apple and nintendo is the mobile phone.. and i'd guess they both know it..

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