What We've All Been Waiting For...

Mothers, lock up your gamers. The PlayStation phone has arrived.


This review conducted by Wired magazine of the new Xperia Play, a Sony Ericsson-produced smartphone to use Verizon Wireless's network, illustrates a key point: the first (legitimate) move into true mobile gaming has been launched. Sure, the now seventh-generation PSP is an impressive device and certainly a long evolution from the Game Gears of years past, but the Xperia Play offers a device that could viably change the dynamics of players all along the value chain.


First and foremost, the Play, unlike the PSP, has the look and feel of a touch-screen smartphone, only that there is a disguised standard Playstation controller that slides out whenever it is time to game. Next, the components of the Play are way superior to the PSP. The smartphone's CPU, a 1 GHz Snapdragon chip, makes it possible to have a seamless gameplay while also having other standard smartphone apps open (the article names data-heavy Google apps like GMail to really emphasize this immense processing power). The PSP, on the other hand, has a CPU clocking in at 333 MHz in peak performance. Thereafter, the Play matches the PSP's WiFi access capabilities as well as connects the users to Verizon's 3G network, making the device more portable and connectable. Finally, though the review does mention that these components are (by modern standards) clunky at best, the Play houses standard smartphone features, such as two high megapixel cameras, that the PSP totally lacks.


If the release of a device like the Play were to be a success, the entire idea of mobile gaming could be radically altered. As it stands now, PSP users insert cartridges into their system to play games, remotely or otherwise. With a WiFi access, they are able to play other users in an online PSP forum and to download basic versions of games. What the Play brings to the value chain are added network effects and greater mobility and connectivity in the distribution of games. The device can now hold and play full versions of games that users can download while on the move. What could happen is that, much like what has happened to Amazon's e-book business with the arrival of the Kindle, the sale of high-quality digital gaming could soon replace the need for separate cartridges. Content providers and post-production services can make a game for solely digital distribution, which will reach a smartphone audience far greater than the current PSP user base is. As a result, the Xperia Play will bring added network effects to the market of true (smartphone-based) gaming and bring about a greater adoption of the mobile gaming concept.

It happened with e-books.. are e-games next?

All the while, a change like this could not come any sooner for the gaming industry. While facing a 8% drop in sales from last year, game makers now face an added pressure of selling a $60 physical product against mobile phone applications that cost, at most, a couple dollars. A shift to an "e-game market" coupled with a phone that can competently play long-style "rich" video games would provide a new distribution avenue for games, possibly without the $10 million in video game production costs per platform.

New hardware and new game distribution could be on the horizon for existing game makers

Of course, the effects of this device on the value chain and on the industry are speculation, but who knows what a successful smartphone gaming console could do...


Article:
http://www.wired.com/reviews/2011/05/sony-xperia-play/