Sony To Unveil PlayStation Smartphone?

There are rumours floating around, ever-increasing in intensity, that Sony Ericsson is gearing up to release an Android phone that ain’ never been seen before – one that will carry the PlayStation branding.

Various news sites are all carrying various details with various claims of accuracy, so I think at this point it’s safe to say that what is ‘known’ is sketchy at best. However, all seem to agree that this is happening – it’s just  a matter of when.

The device resembles a PSP Go or typical slide phone, with familiar gamepad controls instead of a QWERTY. The screen is approximately 4 inches with WVGA resolution, and it may or may not include a 5 megapixel camera. It runs on Gingerbread (Android 3, not the cookie) with a device-specific skin, and there will be a new market ecosystem created specifically for the software, which, if all goes well, may even become available on future Android phones. Current titles rumoured to be in development are mostly from Sony’s current portfolio: God of War, LittleBigPlanet, etc.

And it could be coming as early as October. Spooky.

Pretty exciting, all things considered, especially if you’re a mobile gaming fan. But you have to wonder – is this a new PSP? Surely Sony won’t be charging dedicated portable game console prices for phone-sized software. Mobile market consumers aren’t used to paying more than four bucks for an app. Good luck getting them to pay thirty.

But it’s still too early in the game to say. For now, let’s just sit quietly on our hands and… I dunno, whistle or something.