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Sony Ericsson has said that there’s no need to make a sequel to its gaming phone, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, stating that the Play’s hardware is more than capable of wrassling with powerful new mobiles like the Samsung Galaxy S2.
A Sony Ericsson exec said, in an interview with Eurogamer, “This device, with the GPU integration, has been optimised for gameplay.”
“It’s not going to be outperformed that quickly.”
We agree with Sony Ericsson when it says it doesn’t need to make a new version of the Play, and not just because having suffered through the first version, the thought of being subjected to a second Play makes our kidneys shrivel up in fear…
Software woes
The problem with the Xperia Play isn’t the hardware. In fact, apart from a slightly dim screen, we were impressed with the comfortable physical controls and overall smoothness of the interface.
The problem was the software, which felt rushed and inconsistent, with nary a decent downloadable game in sight. We reported back in May that not one of the Play’s launch titles had managed to hit 1,000 downloads.
Recently the Xperia Play nabbed an exclusive on Minecraft Pocket Edition, with the block-busting indie game optimised for the phone’s gaming controls. Minecraft will be coming out on other Android phones soon enough, but a period of exclusivity could make the Play slightly more tempting.
With the iPhone 5 looming large, we suspect the temptation exists for mobile manufacturers to rush out rival phones with slightly meatier specs. But increasingly the worth of a gadget isn’t determined by its processor or port selection, but by the amount of compelling apps and software you can download for it.
Fingers crossed Sony Ericsson stays true to the plan and sticks some decent games on the Play, rather than just building another phone.
Do you own an Xperia Play? Are you impressed by it? Or does Apple own your heart? Let us know in the comments section below, or on our Facebook wall.
