Rumors of a Sony PSP phone have been swirling for half a decade, so when the new Xperia Play Android phone was announced in February, it was immediately christened the “PSP Phone.” And the Xperia Play is a phone… and it is “PlayStation Certified.” But what does that mean, exactly? Can you grab the Play and ditch your PSP?
Probably not.
Here’s what you need to know about the Xperia Play “PSP phone.”
First: it’s not really a PSP. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is an Android phone with slide-out gaming controls designed around the PSP/PS3 controller with the familiar 
, 
, 
and 
buttons. Like the PSP Go, the phone does not have a UMD drive, so you can’t use PSP games you already have with the handset. But you can play some titles already available on the PSP and other gaming platforms.
The Xperia Play comes pre-loaded with several games including Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior, Star Battalion, Sims 3, and Madden NFL 11. You can purchase and download additional games right from the phone in a special digital store, but games you’ve already purchased for the PSP or PSP Go will not transfer to the Xperia Play; games must be ported for the phone. If you’ve already purchased a title for another PlayStation device that’s also available for the Xperia, you’ll have to buy it again.
You can also play standard Android games on the Xperia Play just like any other Android-powered device. But the built-in hardware controls will not work with all games, and in those games they do work, support may be limited. This may change over time if the phone gains enough popularity for software designers to update their games with support for the phone’s controls.
So, the Xperia Play is really a phone with some PSP features and familiar games – which is great, but not exactly the PSP phone many may imagine it to be. You’ll get some of the PSP experience, but nowhere near what Sony could have done if they really wanted to attract mobile gamers to the phone en masse.
Still, there are currently a fair number of games for the new phone, with more surely to be announced at next week’s E3. If you’re a gamer, the Xperia Play may be your best smartphone choice for now, but you should go into it with your eyes open knowing what you’ll get… and what you won’t.