10 reasons you should be excited about the Xperia Play

The cat is finally out of the bag. After months of rumours, speculation, leaked photographs, bootleg previews, and bizarre announcement-of-announcement videos, Sony has lifted the veil on the fabled PlayStation Phone.

It's called the Xperia Play, and it's an Android 2.3 handset from Sony Ericsson, complete with dedicated gaming knobs, gizmos, buttons, and analogue-stick-style touch pads.

But should we care? Well, here are ten reasons that should get you excited, and have you phoning up your network to find out when your contract expires.

Slippy-slidey touchscreens, awkward keyboards, and cumbersome mouse-like wiggle pads. They're not tactile, they're inaccurate, and your giant sausages of man-meat (i.e., thumbs) obscure half the screen. It works for Angry Birds, but any shooter quickly devolves into finger fumbling tedium.

So hurrah for the Xperia Play's deluge of widgets, bumpers, sticks, and D-pads. This thing's got more buttons than a sartorial convention and touch panels that don't obscure the screen. All in all, you've got a device that's close to the PlayStation controller, which is perfect for ports and familiar genres.

Gaming on Android, quite frankly, stinks. And while a shoddy marketplace and rampant piracy rates aren't helping matters, fragmentation is the killer.

There are almost 100 different 'droid devices, with different tech specs, touchscreens, and gadgets and gizmos under the hood. It makes it tough for developers, and gamers often find themselves with a dud game that doesn't run smoothly, or at all, on their smartphones.

Sony's certification process solves this. The Xperia Play, and other phones that carry the PlayStation logo, are all made to a set of standards to ensure they'll play everything in the PlayStation Store. You can no browse, buy and play, without worrying about your handset's particulars.

iOS is one super slick mobile operating system, but it's ruled under Steve Jobs's iron fist. Apps have to be checked, developers can't mess with your iPhone's innards, and Apple has the last word on all policies and rules. It's ever-so-slightly Orwellian.

Get an Xperia Play and you're buying into the magical, sparkly world of Android, where developers can make any app they want, delve into the inner depths of your device's software architecture and, uhm, steal your credit card details. Still, it's a completely open operating system if that floats your boat.

Ah, the PlayStation. That classic grey slab which turned gaming from toy to entertainment product. Thanks to WipEout's electronica score, Lara's adult proportions, and Gran Turismo's gritty realism, the PlayStation made games growup and get cool. And it hosted some excellent titles.

We named just ten of them in this feature, and we could rattle off 20 more at a moment's notice. The Xperia Play will dole out loads of them as time goes on, and the handset's authentic PS buttons ensure it will feel just like the real thing. The device comes pre-loaded with Crash Bandicoot, too.

The Android Market has gone through some impressive baby steps lately. The web interface is even better than Apple's faux-iTunes set-up. But it's still a labyrinthine mess of crappy rip-offs, rubbish soundboards, and fan-made garbage.

The PlayStation Store, coming to Xperia Play and other PlayStation Suite capable handsets, will probably be well laid out, likely easy to use, and definitely curated by Sony. Only the best games will make the cut, so you can download without worry.

Even proper consoles don't get this many games at launch. Sony says upwards of 50 games will be made available when the Xperia Play launches at the end of March, and they sound pretty good.

Most of them are iPhone ex-pats, such as the excellent Guerrilla Bob, Dead Space, and Galaxy on Fire 2. But if Sony is using its gaming might to entice iPhone developers onto the Android then gamers on Google’s OS will be happy.

"We don't want you to have to play just touchscreen Angry Birds the entire time. We want you to play true console quality games," says Xperia Play product manager, Aaron Duke. Probably not the best way to impress the world's 70 million Angry Birds fans, but it's an interesting mantra.

Sony is pushing 3D games with this device, so we'll see loads more high quality software that really pushes the bar in terms of graphics, controls and environments. Flight Control might be alright for some, but Xperia Play wants to court the hardcore gamers who want racers, shooters, and strategy games on the go.

Sony means games. And TVs, Walkman cassette players, mobile phones, set-top boxes, Blu-Ray, laptops, and the Spider-Man movie franchise. But since the PlayStation 1, games have been a big deal around Sony HQ.

I mean, what does Apple know about gaming? The Pippen? The Breakout game that ships on iPod? Apple doesn't know jack about video games, but Sony has two consoles in store shelves, is a world leader in publishing games, and has armfuls of hit franchises. We trust them, and so should you.

Gameloft is working closely with Sony Ericsson on the Xperia Play. So's Ubisoft and EA. Indie publishers like Fishlabs and Glu are taking a firm interest too. And Sony itself will no doubt bring its own collection of games to the device.

Sony knows a little something about scoring exclusive games, like Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia, and Grand Theft Auto.

Well, it might have lost the knack on PS3, but it still knows how to court developers and interest indie makers. We should see plenty of great studios take a keen interest in the Xperia Play, all thanks to Sony.

The Xperia Play's bread and butter gaming service - PlayStation Suite - will also turn up on the NGP. That means any indie-made games targeting Sony's portable powerhouse will also make their merry way to the Xperia Play and other certified phones.

That means mobile-averse developers can get their handheld games to you, and publishers know they’ll have a few extra NGP owners as customers if they bung a game on the PlayStation Suite. All in all, it makes the Suite just a little more sweet for developers.