Report: Sony to Launch Gaming Smartphone, Updated PSP

Look out Angry Birds, there may soon be another suite of addictive smartphone games battling for gamers’ attention. Global electronics giant Sony is said to be planning its own game-playing smartphone release, to be debuted at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona come February.

It’s only been about two months since Sony CFO Masaru Kato hinted at the company’s continued push into mobile gaming, but according to Bloomberg mobile development sources, that push will bring the gaming phone as well as an updated version of the company’s previous mobile gaming product, the PSP (Playstation Portable).

“The PSP being a proprietary platform was more concentrated I?d say on the core gaming segment than the light game,” Kato said in last November’s earnings call, “but now we are addressing that market as well.?

Also on Wednesday, Nintendo announced the upcoming March 27 launch of a 3-D mobile gaming device, the Nintendo 3DS. Like Sony’s PSPgo, the 3DS will cost $250.

Although we dug Sony’s PSP and PSPgo in terms of gadgetry, sales have been lackluster compared to that of Nintendo’s mobile gaming platform, the Nintendo DS. Research group NPD says Sony trails Nintendo in U.S. sales by tens of millions of units.

Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sony’s original PSP used games launched on a proprietary storage system developed by Sony, the universal media disc. Like Sony’s previous attempt at proprietary storage cartridges with the MiniDisc of the 1990’s, widespread adoption of the UMD failed due to the format’s proprietary nature as well as the lack of read/write devices available. Sony’s follow-up device, the PSPgo, tried to improve upon this system with an on-board hard drive on which gamers could store media, and no optical disc. Instead, Sony distributes all games digitally, and customers download them over Wi-Fi connections.

Stronger emphasis on Sony’s push into the smartphone gaming space signals the company’s willingness to take on competitors like Apple and Android OS-based manufacturers. Still, the cheap prices for games in Apple’s App Store or the Android Market may be difficult to beat. And if Sony were to launch its own app store with the device, differentiation might prove to be an issue as well. Who the hell can keep up with all the app stores out there today anyway?

Photo: The Sony PSPgo/Sony Corp.

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