Separated from Ericsson, Sony now faces tough competition alone in the smartphone market. They apparently had prepared Android smart phones which is pretty much along this 2012. Read more…
Mobile phones are not just used for calling or sending short messages (SMS), but can also be used as a music player of your favorite songs.
Read more…
Last night at the GDC (Game Developers Conference) in San Fransisco there were two new announcements made around Xperia™ PLAY.
The news are:
- Havok has added optimization for Xperia™ PLAY to their technology suite for game developers.
- We partnered with Major League Gaming in the US to make the Xperia™ PLAY the official mobile handset of Major League Gaming
You can find the full press releases below or at our partners web-sites by clicking the links.
Havok partnership press-release:
HAVOK AND SONY ERICSSON PUSH SMARTPHONE BOUNDARIES
Optimised Havok tools available now for Android™ Developers to create games for Xperia™ PLAY
March 1st, 2011, San Francisco – Havok and Sony Ericsson are delighted to announce the availability of Havok’s product suite to Android™ developers, optimized for Xperia™ PLAY, Sony Ericssons recently announced smartphone. Havok, the leading provider of game technology, has a fully optimized build of its industry leading product line ready for licensing by Android™ developers on Xperia™ PLAY as part of its entry into Android™.
David Coghlan, Managing Director, Havok said: “As part of Havok’s overall support for the Android™ platform, we are very pleased to partner with Sony Ericsson to put the full power of the Havok product line into the hands of Xperia™ PLAY developers. We were extremely impressed by the performance of the Xperia™ PLAY and the ease with which we were able to port and optimise our technology to the platform. This will enable developers to use Havok technology to create cinematic, rich 3-D immersive games for Android™ smartphones with Xperia™ PLAY in the forefront.”
Steve Walker, Head of Marketing at Sony Ericsson said: “Xperia™ PLAY is not only a fantastic smartphone on the latest Android™ platform, it also offers the best mobile gaming experience available. We are very pleased to be working with Havok to bring new levels of cinematic and immersive gaming experiences, never before seen on smartphones, to the Android™ platform.
Havok has now fully ported all seven of its products to Gingerbread (version 2.3), the latest version of Google’s Android™ platform and partnered closely with Sony Ericsson to deliver a specifically optimized runtime ahead of launch.
About Havok
Havok™, an Intel® company, was founded in Dublin, Ireland in 1998, and is the premier provider of interactive software and services for digital media creators in the games and movie industries.
Havok works in partnership with the world’s best known game developers, including Microsoft, Nintendo®, and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Havok’s cross-platform, professionally supported technology is available for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable), Xperia™ PLAY, Wii™, PC Games for Windows.
Havok’s combination of superior technology and dedication to delivering for its customers has led to the company’s technologies being used in over 300 of the world’s best known game titles, including Halo Reach, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Epic Mickey, Fallout New Vegas, Uncharted 2, Demon’s Soul and Bioshock 2. A further 130 games are in development. Havok products have also been used to drive special effects in movies such as Clash of the Titans, Watchmen, Quantum of Solace, Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix, and The Matrix. Havok has offices in Dublin, San Francisco, Copenhagen, Calcutta, Munich, and Tokyo.
Majour League Gaming partnership press-release:
Sony Ericsson and Major League Gaming Announce Strategic Partnership Bringing Xperia™ PLAY to Gamers Nationwide
Sony Ericsson Xperia™ PLAY to be the official mobile handset of Major League Gaming
SAN FRANCISCO, March 2, 2011 — Sony Ericsson and Major League Gaming (MLG), the world’s largest professional video game league and provider of cross platform online videogame competition, today announced a partnership making Xperia™ PLAY the official mobile handset of Major League Gaming.
“Sony Ericsson is redefining mobile gaming with Xperia™ PLAY. It’s designed to give you everything you need from a fully featured smartphone and the one thing you want– the ultimate mobile gaming experience,” said Peter Farmer, Head of Marketing for North America, Sony Ericsson. “We know that Major League Gaming’s community of gamers will put that gaming experience to the ultimate test and we’re looking forward to connecting with this highly engaged global community.”
MLG is the premier property for video gaming competition and is the exclusive sanctioning body for both competitive professional and amateur gaming competition. It operates a rapidly growing digital platform with a community of approximately 8 million, as well as the multi-city Pro-Circuit tour. The 8th season of the Pro Circuit will include competitions in six major U.S. cities and will be streamed live online. With more than $1 million in prizes and player stipends, this will be the largest season in MLG history.
To showcase the extensive capabilities of Xperia™ PLAY, each MLG Pro Circuit event will feature demonstrations, game challenges and giveaways, kicking off at the season opener on April 1 in Dallas. Sony Ericsson will also sponsor MLG Pro Player Dave “Walshy” Walsh and MLG Coach Andy “JT Bravo” Dudynsky for the 2011 season. Later this year, Sony Ericsson will also sponsor a new video segment on MLG.tv highlighting must-have apps and games.
“At MLG, we aim to showcase the latest technology that will benefit our community of gamers,” said Sundance DiGiovanni, CEO, MLG. “Xperia™ PLAY is an amazing smartphone and a stellar gaming device bringing the best mobile capabilities to our audience.”
Xperia™ PLAY is powered by the latest version of the Android™ platform (Gingerbread version 2.3) and will also be the first PlayStation® Certified smartphone. This means it will have access to PlayStation® game content provided through the PlayStation® Suite initiative, currently under development by Sony Computer Entertainment and due to launch later this calendar year.
In addition to the PlayStation content from the PlayStation® suite framework there will be more than 50 games from various Android publishers optimized for Xperia PLAY available at launch. Users will have a best-in-class gaming experience with many popular titles, including Asphalt™ Adrenaline 6, Bruce Lee, Star Battalion, The Sims 3™ and Tetris™. Other leading franchises available at launch include, Guitar Hero™, Assassin’s Creed™, and Splinter Cell™.
A pre-loaded application will enable users to easily discover and download titles that have been optimized for game play on the Xperia™ PLAY, access recently played games and see information about the games they have downloaded.
About Major League Gaming
Founded in 2002, Major League Gaming (MLG) is the dominant media property exclusively targeting the approximately 40 million consumers in North America who have a passion for playing video games as a competitive social activity. The company exclusively represents the best professional gamers and gives millions of aspiring gamers around the world an opportunity to compete, improve their skills, and socialize through our thriving online competitive community and live Pro Circuit competitions. For more information: www.majorleaguegaming.com.
Today I thought I would have a look around on the Sony Ericsson website, where I stumbled across a Challenge Xperia™ – Challenge the Driver link, so I decided to pay a visit to it.Basically, the current challenge is based around the Xperia Arc, and the above image, so what on earth have Sony Ericsson planned? To see if you can use two Xperia Arc’s to use to drive with (acting as a window screen)
It appears what they done is checked all the fluids of the car first (which seems normal), until they start smashing the windows screen and other windows, and weld some metal into their places, with a cut out for the two Arcs. Next, they set the driver on his way.
Did the driver manage to drive the car on the dusty circuit? I will leave that to you to find out, but it certainly seems to be a more normal advert rather than the first advert for the Xperia Play.
You can watch the video via this link, and clicking on the watch clip button (sorry, no youtube)
The head of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 UK division has confirmed that Sony Ericsson are working on a Windows Phone 7 handset. Oded Ran, the Microsoft executive in question, made the comment in an interview with mymicrosoftlife.com and he actually went a little farther than that. His actual comment was:
Sony Ericsson is working on at least one Windows Phone 7 device
So it looks like there is not one, but perhaps more Windows Phone 7 handsets on the way from Sony Ericsson. Annoyingly there is no word on when this device will likely come to market, but we can hope that it is amongst the first wave of devices or at the very least appears before the end of the year. Of course this comes not long after Sony Ericsson announced that they were effectively ditching Symbian (huzzah!) so some may wonder if they are over stretching themselves again. To be fair though Windows Phone 7 has been gaining a lot of traction and getting a handset out early could allow Sony Ericsson to gain some traction with the nascent platform. Here’s hoping anyway!
