PlayStation Phone rumours have been circulating fast recently and the presence of Sony Ericsson’s head of games, Peter Ahnegard, near the PlayStation stand at the Leipzig Games Convention was enough to get Pocket Gamer’s nose a-twitching. Alas, they weren’t able to coax him into spilling any beans but what he had to say in the interview seems to indicate that a Sony Ericsson PlayStation branded mobile phone could be right around the corner.

When quizzed directly about the PlayStation Phone, Ahnegard responded “It's obviously something that we're looking at, but right now I can't really comment. Before Christmas, certainly... but exactly which Christmas I can't confirm!”

This would certainly go along rather nicely with the PlayStation Home mobile functions that were shown off at E3 this year, but with a new model PSP coming out very soon, it seems unlikely that Sony would want to steal any of its thunder with a PlayStation branded handset. So that probably mean Xmas 2008 at the earliest.

Peter Ahnegard also had some interesting things to say about the future of mobile gaming, citing ideas that have been floating around the mobile gaming space though have yet to be properly implemented. He used World of Warcraft as an example “I believe we should take small steps and offer small mobile gaming services that tie into existing communities. The WoW trading house is an oft-cited example where this element of the game is distinct from the actual action. Likewise, I see a similar level of admin that could be fulfilled over mobile whilst you're travelling home - imagine training characters or organising your armies in preparation for launching into battle when you step into your house.”

If Sony Ericsson does decide to launch a PlayStation Phone I hope this is the model it uses. I’m not a big mobile gamer and my general perception of mobile games is that they’re fairly awful knock-offs of mainstream titles, put together with little to no imagination or attention to the medium on which they are being played. If mobile gaming could be used to enhance ordinary console gaming then that would be something I personally would be far more interested in. What do you think?

Source
Pocket Gamer

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