The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2011–2012
Sony Ericsson Xperia Play: the PlayStation phone with a sparse game library
A PlayStation-certified phone with slide-out gamepad, launched at €649 on a thin lineup of augmented Android games — panned, and its Android 4.0 update dropped.
Sony Ericsson · 2011-04-01
What happened
Announced at Mobile World Congress in February 2011 and released in the UK in April 2011 at €649, the Xperia Play was Sony Ericsson's bet that the PlayStation brand could rescue the smartphone: a phone with a slide-out gamepad — a D-pad, the familiar triangle, circle, cross and square buttons, plus two trackpads — carrying the PlayStation Certified badge. The launch lineup held about 50 titles, including a PlayStation-format front showcase.
The gamepad was the whole pitch, and the games did not justify it. The Verge's review found the launch selection 'sparse' and 'subpar' — most titles were ordinary Android games with added gamepad support, with only a few real standouts like a bit-for-bit Crash Bandicoot PS One port. With the slide-out extending the phone to 16mm — the thickest on the reviewer's desk — the bulk bought little: 'there's no firm support on horizon.' The Verge scored it 5.5 out of 10.
The software commitment then evaporated. The Play shipped on Android 2.3 and, on May 25 2012, Sony Ericsson confirmed it would not receive the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) update, citing stability. Sony's broader PlayStation Mobile service was shut down in 2015. The phone's promise was a library of exclusive games; what shipped was a thick phone running next to no exclusives.
Why it happened
- Sony Ericsson sold a hardware promise — a gamepad — that the game library never backed up: about 50 launch titles, mostly ordinary Android games with added buttons, against a DS or PSP.
- The 16mm-thick slide-out that carried the gamepad made the phone bulky to carry every day, and being the thickest phone on the desk was a price buyers paid for a library that never arrived.
- Dropping the Android 4.0 update in May 2012, less than a year and a half after launch, ended the platform's forward promise and left early buyers on a dead software track.
The lesson
A controller is not a game library. Sony Ericsson charged premium-plus for a slide-out gamepad and shipped a lineup of Android games — buy hardware only as far as the software you can launch on it.
Aftermath
Sony Ericsson dropped the Xperia Play's Android 4.0 update in May 2012 citing stability, and Sony's PlayStation Mobile service — the ecosystem the Play pointed toward — was discontinued in 2015. The PlayStation phone idea was not revived by Sony at mainstream scale.
Sources
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