Category Archives: Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

Playstation Suite SDK Coming In November to Playstation Certified Devices

Posted by on September 15, 2011 No comments

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The Tokyo Game Show is taking place right now in Japan and Sony is dropping a world of hurt on the gaming industry thanks in part to their new PlayStation Vita handheld gaming device. To help capture the mobile market, Sony is introducing the Playstation Suite SDK for developers to be available this November. This new SDK will allow developers to make cross platform games and apps that work with any Playstation Certified device like (of course) the PSVita as well as Android powered devices like the Xperia Play and Sony’s new brand spankin’ new Tablet S and Tablet P. Sony expects C# developers to have some content up and running by Spring of 2012. This is HUGE news for Android as Sony hopes to have their own Android game market for all Android users regardless of your device. Check out the full press release below.

Sep 14, 2011 23:37 ET
Sony Computer Entertainment to Offer Software Development Kit for PlayStation®Suite Starting This November

SCE to Provide Strong Support to Content Developers for PlayStation®Suite With the Distribution of the Newly Developed Content Starting Next Spring

TOKYO, Sept. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) today announced that it will offer software development kits (SDK) for PlayStation®Suite (PS Suite), called “PlayStation®Suite SDK,” *1 for content developers starting this November. PS Suite is an initiative solution to deliver the world of PlayStation® to Android™ based portable devices.

Through PS Suite SDK, content developers can create content for PlayStation™Certified (PS Certified) devices, hardware certified through the PS Suite license program, as well as for PlayStation®Vita (PS Vita).

Supporting C# as the programming language, PS Suite SDK can run programs developed in C# on virtual machine equipped on both PS Certified devices and PS Vita. By supporting development for multiple devices and by adopting libraries to create a variety of content not only limited to games, PS Suite SDK will not only help developers save their cost in creating new content but also allow them to efficiently create their content on one SDK and without having to create on several different SDKs.

Through PS Suite SDK, SCE will provide to game developers and publishers the potential to further expand their business opportunities to Android based portable devices. In addition, SCE can approach to a wider range of content developers, non-gaming developers and individual programmers. The detailed information of PS Suite SDK, including how to download, will be announced via a dedicated PS Suite section on SCE’s official website.

As of September 15th, 2011, PS Certified device line-up includes Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB’s Xperia PLAY, Sony Corporation’s “Sony Tablet” S, “Sony Tablet” P, and SCE will continue to further accelerate the expansion of PS Certified devices in addition to the current hardware line-up.

Furthermore, SCE will provide a variety of content towards these PS Certified devices from end October through PlayStation®Store*2 on PlaySation®Network, starting with original PlayStation games (PS one® classics). The service will start in nine countries including Japan, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Australia and with more countries to follow. In next spring, SCE will enhance the PS Store for PS Certified devices and provide content created by PS Suite SDK, further prevailing the world of PS Suite.

Through PS Suite, SCE will deploy various measures to support content developers in their business for rapidly prevailing Android based portable devices and will expand the PlayStation entertainment experience on an open operating system.

*1
Software Development Kit is a set of development tools and software libraries. Developers are able to obtain this SDK by signing a license agreement with SCE and by purchasing tool products.
*2
Users can download vast digital content including games through PS Store for PS Network for PS3, PSP, PS Vita and PS Certified devices.
*3
Number of content differ by regions.

[Via Engadget]

Xperia Play Scores Another Exclusive with FIFA 12

Posted by on August 16, 2011 No comments

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The next installment of EA’s popular soccer franchise will be hitting Android early next year with the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play picking up exclusive rights to FIFA 12 for the first month of its release. It’s another big score for the gaming handset that continues to pile on quality games to its catalog. Word is the exclusive period will end in February, signaling a January release for the game. A higher framerate have been mentioned as improvements to expect in the games presentation, though little else is know about what updates to expect to the series.

[via DroidGamers]

Minecraft Pocket Edition Now Available as Xperia Play Exclusive

Posted by on August 16, 2011 No comments

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Get your pick axe ready, Mojang’s highly anticipated Minecraft Pocket Edition has been officially released to the Android Market. As has been made clear almost since the announcement that the addictive world-building game would make its way to mobile handsets, you will need a Sony Ericsson Xperia Play to enjoy this one. Priced at $6.99, the exclusive release period for the Xperia Play should lsat a month or two before the game is made available to all compatible handsets. The game is still labeled as an Alpha release (v0.1), but it is packed full of features, including:

  • Randomized worlds
  • Build anything you can imagine
  • Build with 36 different kinds of blocks
  • Invite and play with friends to your world (local wireless network)
  • Save multi-player worlds on your own phone
For more on the announcement head over to the source link below, or simply follow through to the Android Market to download. Does the release of the game make the $1,000+ eBay auction of the Limited Edition Minecraft version of the Xperia Play any more tempting?
Android Market Link: Minecraft Pocket Edition
[via Mojang]

Mojang Puts Limited Edition Minecraft Xperia Play Up for Sale on eBay

Posted by on August 15, 2011 No comments

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A limited edition Sony Ericsson Xperia Play featuring a Minecraft deco will be offered up as a prize at the Gamescon conference being held in Germany, but if you’re ready to spend a pretty penny you could claim your own thanks to Mojang. The development house behind Minecraft has one of the special edition phones up for sale on eBay. At the time of this writing, the handset is already commanding $1,250, a hefty sum for the gaming device with six days left on the auction. But don’t chalk up the sale to Mojang’s desire to deepen their own pockets. They are giving away all proceeds to a yet-to-be-named charity. Is it too much to ask for a final version of Minecraft’s mobile port to come pre-installed?

[via Engadget]

Minecraft Teased for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

Posted by on August 9, 2011 No comments

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The exact release date of Minecraft for Android is unknown at this point, but that’s not stopping Sony Ericsson from teasing the upcoming Xperia Play exclusive. And when we say tease, we mean the smallest of teases possible in the for of a nine-second video clip. One thing we do know is that the game will cost $6.99 when it does launch.

[via DroidGamers]

Xperia Play’s Playstation One Emulator Reversed Engineered To Play Custom ISO’s [Video]

Posted by on August 9, 2011 No comments

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Thanks to one of our awesome Phandroid readers, I stumbled upon a rather amazing breakthrough over on XDA. Apparently, a developer named yifanlu has been hard at work looking for a way to reverse engineer the native Playstation One emulator found on the Xperia Play to play converted custom ISO’s.

Well, after a week of nonstop work, yifanlu has managed to get an ISO of Crash Bandicoot 3 up and running on the Xperia Play and the results are near perfect. Here’s a video as proof of his efforts:

 

According to yifanlu, everything is fully functional except for “manual” (instruction manual) and multi-disc games.

Now I just need to write the GUI [program to convert ISO to APK]. No more then a day for that. As much as I hate Java in every way, I feel like it would be the easiest way of making a multi-platform tool. I’ll also do a final writeup on my site in a couple of days.

There you have it! We may have a way to convert already previously owned (or downloaded) Playstation One games for use on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and have those games play smoother and with fewer bugs than using conventional emulators on Android. Once this is achieved, we can finally crown the Xperia Play the king of old school gaming on Android. We’ll be keeping you guys updated on the progress.

[Via Yifan.Lu]

Thanks, Nhialor!

Verizon’s Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY May Soon Have Root + Unlocked Bootloader

Posted by on August 4, 2011 No comments

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It’s been a long time since the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play was launched. Because it’s a Playstation Certified phone, we figured there’d be a bit more difficulty cracking it compared to Sony Ericsson’s other phones. (Note: Sony Ericsson did provide an official bootloader unlocker for several phones including the Xperia Play, but it’s believed that community-unlocked bootloaders are much more desirable. Verizon and other SIM-locked variants in Europe also never received official unlocking love.)

There may be a breakthrough finally, though, according to these tasty-looking screenshots – we shouldn’t be far off from full root and a lack of bootloader encryption. Exciting times might be ahead, though we’re not exactly sure how active this development community is compared to some of Verizon’s other phones. In any case, if you just want to get root and prepare yourself for any possible custom ROMs in the future, keep an eye on this XDA thread.