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The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play‘s ability to play first-generation PlayStation titles doesn’t seem to be making an impression with gamers. Not one of the titles currently available has hit the 1,000 downloads mark, even though the Android smart phone has been out since early April.
PlayStation Lifestyle did some digging about in the Android Market, and found that the game Destruction Derby was faring best, with somewhere between 500 and 1,000 downloads. Syphon Filter, MediEvil and Cool Boarders 2 mustered between 100 and 500 downloads each, and Jumping Flash managed somewhere between 50 and 100.
The figures make for gloomy reading. By way of contrast, in last night’s app-building challenge on The Apprentice, the losing team’s regional-accent soundboard app managed around 3,000 downloads in 24 hours.
We were dismayed by the Xperia Play’s gaming service when we reviewed the phone, noting that the ‘classic’ titles hadn’t been updated to work properly with the device’s physical controls. We were plagued by control inconsistencies and graphical glitches, and the games are in the wrong aspect ratio too, so you’ll be lumbered with black bars down either side of the screen. You even get the straight-out-of-the-90s anti-piracy warning flashing up at the beginning.
Sony Ericsson apparently isn’t fussed about the low sales. In an interview with PlayStation Lifestyle, Dominic Neil-Dwyer, the company’s head of market development, said: “I think there’s… an awareness thing for people who are getting their hands on the device, and where they are choosing to purchase games [also has an effect on the numbers]. There’s only a few… PlayStation One titles there, and there’s more coming on a regular basis. So there’s no concerns. It’s a revolutionary device, it’s shaking up the market [and] we’re very pleased with it.”
Hmm. What do you reckon? Has Sony Ericsson dropped the ball? Or will the service pick up once some more appealing games are made available? Let us know in the comments section below or on our Facebook wall.
