I always get a bit worried when too much hype surrounds forthcoming products. However the rumour mill has been churning for some months now around a Playstation Phone and I have to admit it’s getting hard to sit still, especially when, over the past few days, a couple of videos have hit YouTube showing off the gaming phone and its Android interface.
Check out the videos below, and decide for yourself whether they are the real deal ‘happy meal’ or nothing but ‘fan made’ fantasia.
According to sources it will have 512 MB of RAM, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and a touchpad designed for gaming. Its biggest feature though is that will run Google’s Android OS, as well as Playstation games.
With all fairness though, as many techno heads know, most phones can run PSP type games albeit at lower resolution through things like emulators etc. Another thing that concerns me is the amount of RAM. Being in mind it will have to run your entire phone’s apps and games, is 512 MB really going to be enough? Sony are going to do something about the size as it looks like a brick and let hope they do something about that control pad too – it looks nasty! One thing is for sure – Sony are keeping it on a ‘real down low’ for now and saying nothing on whether it actually exists. However if it does, a Playstation phone could be one of the most innovative pieces of hardware of 2011 and a real contender to other touch screen phone rivals on the market – you all know who you are!
Dude, seriously? Actually, I pay very close attention to the industry, which is why I made those statements. Read the NPD results and you’ll see what I mean.
In terms of handheld sales, I agree the DS is definitely declining, but it still DOMINATES the PSP by so far that there is no competition. After the 3DS spike goes down, what this actually means is a decline in the handheld market as a whole. Within 5 years, Apple will have a significant share of the market, if not becoming the leader, simply by accessibility & cheapness of software and the fact that hardware sells like hotcakes.
You’re surely not arguing that the PSP has been successful??? It has utterly underperformed, moreso with every new iteration, the PSP Go selling dismally. Also, you are aware that the U.S.A is the only territory that matters, right? (I’m not from the btw) U.S sales make or break.
Of course, something can always happen to turn things around, but this is not a time of financial risk. Sony does not have 3rd party support. Look how many PS3 exclusives it has lost this generation! Metal Gear, Resident Evil, GTA, Devil May Cry, etc, etc. That means Sony can’t afford to buy exclusivity. Sorry to any Playstation fans (I have one myself), but Sony has seriously messed this generation up. If they can develop an infrastructure like Apple, and deliver games VERY cheaply, they might survive, but if they want to charge full price, they WILL NOT sell at any volume. And still no second analog stick?!
This isn’t just me ranting, go watch any industry podcast and see what they mnake of it.
M.
i agree, Sony is late to the race. but i still believe this phone has a chance to succeed in at least a niche market if not the market of the rest of the world. also, if you had been truly paying attention to the gaming world, you would notice that A) Sony did NOT lose money on the PSP; while it wasn’t a great success, they still managed to make a profit off of it, selling over 60 million consoles, B) the DS is actually going down in sales due to the iPhone’s popularity, C) Sony only has a mediocre standing in the phone sector in the USA (their phones are hugely popular in China and Japan), and D) you should never make an absolute statement. everything has some chance of success, even if it’s very slim. however, i believe that this phone has a chance of succeeding mainly just because it can do everything an iPhone can and more, coupled with the Android operating system and marketplace, along with the extra PSP capabilities, and the equivalent of Apple’s Retina Display. plus amazing specs. the writer of this article seems to think that 512 megabytes of RAM is not enough for a gaming phone. ahem, the XBOX 360 has only 512 megabytes of RAM. if an XBOX can run on that, i am quite sure that a phone can.
I am SO getting one.
It’s real, bonafide, 100% coming out. Also, it’s bonafide, 100% going to fail dismally.
It cannot compete with the iPhone or the DS. The iPhone has the mobile market sewn up, and the DS has the handheld market sorted.
Sony lose so much money on the PSP, and have a mediocre standing in the phone sector, that although in theory this has the potential to do well on paper, it has absolitely no chance of success. It’s too late to the race.