With Xperia Play, Sony Ericsson eyes gamers of all kinds

Phonemaker Sony Ericsson has officially launched in the country the Xperia Play, targeting the generation who grew up playing the Sony PlayStation and the casual gamers who have grown to love games such as Angry Birds. At a simple yet impressive media launch in Makati City, the company formally unveiled the unit which has been keenly awaited by both phone and gaming enthusiasts. The new Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, which has a retail price of P19,990, comes with a host of games optimized for the Android smartphone. The following game titles are included in the unit: Bruce Lee, Crash Bandicoot, FIFA 2010, Madden NFL 11, Star Battalion, and The SIMS 3. Sony Ericsson has also partnered with Tozai Games to bring the gaming franchise “Lode Runner" to Android for the first time. From November 2011, it will be available exclusively on Xperia Play and other Xperia devices. A new partnership with Square Enix will also bring titles such as “Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light" exclusively to Android on Xperia Play in November 2011. In the Philippines, the Xperia Play is bundled with freebies such as a car charger, screen protector, and leather case. The smartphone offers a 5.1-megapixel camera with auto focus and geo-tagging, Google Services, sound recorder, Noise Shield, Sony Ericsson Music Player and also supports conference calls, document readers and document editors. It also features the Sony Ericsson-exclusive Timescape, an application which allows users to view all communications from one contact such as SMS, calls or emails in one go. “The Xperia Play is primarily an Xperia Android smartphone that will have widespread appeal to a number of consumer audiences including casual and enthusiastic gamers," said Dennis Manzano, Sony Ericsson Philippines general manager. The Xperia Play runs on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and is powered with a 1Ghz Snapdragon processor and Adreno 205 GPU. — Newsbytes.ph