"No concern" at Xperia PS1 game sales

By Fred Dutton Published 11 May, 2011

Sony: "There's a lot more to come."

Sony has shrugged off reports that PSone games are struggling to find an audience on its Xperia Play smartphone.

Not one of the PSone titles optimised for the new device has over 1000 listed installs on the Android Marketplace, with most numbering in the low hundreds.

However, speaking in an interview with PlayStation LifeStyle, Sony Ericsson market development chief Dominic Neil-Dwyer insisted the company was happy with how things had gone since the phone's 1st April launch.

"I think there's also an awareness thing for people that are getting their hands on the device and where they are choosing to purchase games," he explained.

"There's only a few, at the minute, PlayStation One titles there, and there's more coming on a regular basis, and there's the whole PlayStation as a content provider exclusive to the device, the story about that, that will emerge and people will see.

"So, there's no concerns, it's a revolutionary device, it's shaking up the market, we're very pleased with it. In terms of getting the PlayStation Certified program out, generally, we're very happy.

"I think we'll make a full assessment of if it has achieved our expectations fully, further down the line, so we're very happy. We know there's a lot more to come that we're not, obviously, releasing yet."

Five PSone titles were available to download at the phone's launch priced at £3.99 each: Cool Boarders 2, Destruction Derby, Jumping Flash, MediEvil and Syphon Filter.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (44) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • coolbritannia #1 1 year ago

    So, putting that through the Sony bullshit-o-meter, they're terrified.

  • suicida #2 1 year ago

    Not one game over 1000 installs in over a month on sale, worldwide? That's unbelievably poor. I'm sure even the N-gage did better than that in it's first month...

  • rprince #3 1 year ago

    Can you even get any of the games given the PSN Store is down?

  • brod #4 1 year ago

    To be fair, most of the PS1 game library is garbage.

  • Toothball #5 1 year ago

    Presumably they have the same regional licences that PSN does, in which case there's probably a long road of mostly Disney games to come. There's a lot of the PS1 range that isn't on the PSN, so the Xperia Play may begin to suffer from that after a time.

  • INSOMANiAC #6 1 year ago

    Selling five aged PSONE games to a couple of hundred people is 'shaking up the market' it is now?

    Sounds more like 'reinventing the N-Gage'

    You should have just released a PSP/Phone you dozy twats.

  • NeoTechni #7 1 year ago

    If they were smart, they'd let you sync up with your PSN account so games you buy off PSN will sync to your android account.

    I have Syphon Filter already off PSN, why would I buy it on Android?
    Worse, I can download an emulator for Android that WILL play the eboot from PSN.

  • BuckEntropy #8 1 year ago

    Umm, "garbage" is a little harsh, but seriously, brod's point is valid. It's not like they put up GT or MGS, gotta be real here.

  • MiniAmin #9 1 year ago

    Most of those games are useless on a touch screen. Gimme Final Fantasy 7 and i'm sold.

    Why has this comment been negged? I wouldn't like to play Syphon Filter on a touchscreen, and I don't have an Xperia Play. However I think RPGs would be perfect.
    Edited by MiniAmin at 12/05/11 @ 10:36

  • phil_75 #10 1 year ago

    coolbritania, I'm a Sony fan - man but your 1st comment is brilliant and worst of all its TRUE!!!

    SONY. Pulling the wool since 2005 (aka when they realised PS3 was no better than 360 at half the price)

  • castertroy #11 1 year ago

    PSP GO 2 ?

  • marshaal5 #12 1 year ago

    It might be just me but eurogamer you seem to take great delight in telling everyone when anything sony related appears to "struggle"
    .i think the phone comes with 4 games installed so perhaps people are just playing them first.
    Sales figures for windows 7 phone games?

  • McShifty #13 1 year ago

    The Xperia Play seemed like a flawed idea from the start. Did they do any market research? How many people out there really wanted a bulky smartphone that played games from 1996?

  • mr2ange #14 1 year ago

    @brod

    Tell me one platform where most of the game library is not garbage.

    Every console has its own games that really shine, along with a huge library of shovelware based on how cheap the games come to make vs how many consoles are in the installed base.

    I'd like to the the Good games vs Bad games on the Wii....

  • jag10 #15 1 year ago

    except the iPhone what phone does sell loads of apps/games?

  • Zozzilla #16 1 year ago

    As soon as things like Spyro, MGS, FF7, Legacy of Kain, Vagrant Story etc start coming out on the PLAY, I'll be getting them.

  • fknetwork #17 1 year ago

    Don't forget the Play isn't even out worldwide yet, theres only a few places with it and in those places the actual device has sold really really well, I had to wait for more stock to get mine, its not even out in the U.S yet!

    Had mine for 10 days (I have 30 days to return it if I didn't like it) and can honestly say its the best phone I have owned to date and this is coming from an iphone 4 and samsung galaxy s user, the play wipes the floor with them, it really is a gamers delight, the games, wow.... the super nes, n64, mega dive, master system, mame emus run superbly and provides years of great gaming with the plays controls! nothing like playing mario kart 64 again!

    The gpu and cpu in the Play are better than that in any non dual core smartphone out now (adreno 205), the cpu can be overclocked from 1ghz to 2.02ghz, i've rooted mine, custom roms, all sorts, and the current gaming is very good on it too, some of the gameloft games look stunning and run at 60fps as standard, easily on par with anything on ipad 2 at the moment.

    And the reason the official ps1 games are selling poorly is because theres a MUCH better ps1 emu out for the Play which everyone is using instead (it had over a million downloads just for the play!), you can rip your very own ps1 games and run them at 60-120fps, its fantastic!

    Anyway! I'm going back to super mario all stars,

  • BigDannyH #18 1 year ago

    Aren't emulators illegal?

    Also, even if those PS1 games were free I wouldn't bother playing them. Sod paying out for a Sony phone and then £4 a pop.

    I can't wait for this mobile games fad to end.

  • Spunkweazle #19 1 year ago

    Syphon filter was a great game in its day, but it is the very definition of a bad mobile game.
    I downloaded it for my PSP a few years ago and it simply wasnt good enough to spend the amount of time and effort required to beat the first level

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #20 1 year ago

    Aren't emulators illegal?


    Emulators are perfectly legal. Edited:Ripping your own cartridges or CDs and playing them on emulators is equivalently legal to importing your CDs into iTunes - there may be legal issues to do with circumventing copy protection (see rev Stu's post below)

    Downloading ripped roms for catridges you own is an area a shade darker grey than that.

    And downloading roms for which you don't own originals is definitely against the law, although you'd probably have to be prosecuted civilly (like George Hotz), and there are arguments about abandonware, and things being in or out of 'print'.


    However, I reckon that existing Android emulators are probably a big part of the reason Xperia Play early adopters aren't paying for the PSOne originals on Google's Marketplace.
    Edited by MENTAL1ST at 12/05/11 @ 10:01

  • schnide #21 1 year ago

    Emulators aren't illegal but the ROMs for them certainly exist in a grey area to say the least.

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #22 1 year ago

    "Ripping your own cartridges or CDs and playing them on emulators is also perfectly legal"

    Not any more it's not. It used to be, but doing such a thing now is against the law - specifically Section 296Z of the 2003 Copyright And Rights Regulations Act - because the act of "ripping" requires you to circumvent copy protection, which is now an offence in and of itself.

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #23 1 year ago

    "Emulators are generally not legal because you also need the BIOS, which is protected by copyright."

    That's completely irrelevant. Unless the BIOS is built into the emulator, or supplied with the emulator package, it doesn't affect the legality of the emulator itself.

  • HL706 #24 1 year ago

    Very, very few people on Android handsets will pay for anything. Even Rovio didn't fancy doing a paid version of Angry Birds because the market is so unbelievably bad - and if any game was going to reverse the trend, it would've been Angry Birds.

    I love my Android phone as a consumer, as a developer it makes my blood boil.

  • Ror1984 #25 1 year ago

    The guy likes commas, that much is obvious.

  • bliprunner #26 1 year ago

    "it's a revolutionary device"

    And the games were revolutionary, in 1995.

  • bdc #27 1 year ago

    Poor Sony, they are clueless at this digital download malarky...

  • Ahskay #28 1 year ago

    This;

    "And the reason the official ps1 games are selling poorly is because theres a MUCH better ps1 emu out for the Play which everyone is using instead (it had over a million downloads just for the play!), you can rip your very own ps1 games and run them at 60-120fps, its fantastic! "

    Edited by Ahskay at 12/05/11 @ 10:29

  • lucifonz #29 1 year ago

    Said it before and I'll say it again this phone was dead on arrival. Old tech in a bulky device with an OS that's well known to have low game sales along with a control scheme that only one phone on the Market uses.

  • Widge #30 1 year ago

    They need to roll Suite out to more than just ONE device

  • meanmrmustard #31 1 year ago

    Doesn't seem surprising as the only psone game I can find available is Crash Bandicoot and that came pre-installed, are there any other PSone games available in the UK or am I looking in the wrong place (the playstation pocket app.)

    Aaaaanyway *insert favourite Psone emulator here* works just fine ;)
    Edited by meanmrmustard at 12/05/11 @ 11:13

  • tiny_Eggy #32 1 year ago

    lol only five PS1 games available, can't be surprised if that's the case.

    @ people with the PSP phone stuff. You're missing the point. It's a phone that allows PS1 games to be played not a playstation phone.

  • brod #33 1 year ago

    @mr2ange
    "Tell me one platform where most of the game library is not garbage."

    I never claimed otherwise, and I agree.

  • DirectAim #34 1 year ago

    the games are shite, release something good and watch the sales fly, I have an xperia play and its frigging awesome, I just dont buy the PS1 titles because they are wank, the best game out at the moment (crash bandicoot) is pre installed so why waste money on the trash they have made available.

    they sold this as "bringing playstation 1 to your phone", five wank titles so far, how can they not be surprised, Sony think because it has a logo on it people will spend their money on shit, it ain't gunna happen.

    Bring out Resident Evils and they watch the sales go up!

    fknetwork #22 hits the nail on the head!
    Edited by DirectAim at 12/05/11 @ 12:07

  • knightmt #35 1 year ago

    Have they got driver or tekken 2?

  • Totoriko #36 1 year ago

    Sony is going downhill in all areas this year.

  • Widge #37 1 year ago

    I wonder if it is some sort of exclusivitity thing with Erricsson. They get a patch with which to have Suite on the Xperia before it gets rolled out to the rest of Android.

  • handsonhips101 #38 1 year ago

    Nice to see coolbritannia at the top of the comments page. Waving his Willy with glee as usual.

    I want that phone. Why?

    It's buttons.

    I have a desire hd overclocked to 1.5ghz running 2.3 leedroid. Sonys phone can't match that. However;

    I have an n64 emulator on my phone. Zelda, pilotwings, Mario 64. Brilliant. But would be better with a real pad. Same goes for megadrive, snes, atari...

    Sony seems to have created a gem but don't know what to do with it.

    The ps1 games and gameloft stuff they have chucked at it is stupid. Needs real classics; ff7, wipeout 2097, mgs, tekken 2, ridge racer 4, etc. They could clean up.

    Then if someone writes a nice Android rom that overclocks it and improves it...

  • des #39 1 year ago

    PS1 games selling like shit in 2011...what a shock

  • FreneticZombie #40 1 year ago

    Three big reasons for the device doing terrible are that it's just not a great phone to use, £3.99 for games that are around ten years old is a joke, and lastly you can get a PSX emulator for any decent Android phone and download the ROM's for free. This is not Sony's year

  • carrotcake #41 1 year ago

    How is it "shaking up the market" if hardly anyone cares lol. Think they are less happy than he is letting on.

  • Widge #42 1 year ago

    Do remember suite is more than a shop for shifting ps1 games and it's not tied to the xperia. It's designed to be a publication engine, which is probably why Sony aren't concerned. They will have one eye on pushing this out to the android range. Remember they said they were totally fine with the concept of iOS and WM7 using it.

    See past the hardware people.

  • Agent_Llama #43 1 year ago

    Kula World and Crash Bandicoot 2 went up on the Play store this week, though the latter has disappeared. Am enjoying Kula World though as I missed out first time.

    The phone shines as an emulator though, and some of the Gameloft software is decent stuff, all thanks to the control pad.

    Very happy Play owner here, but would dearly love some of the big titles to appear.
    Edited by Agent_Llama at 12/05/11 @ 19:46

  • Ryze #44 1 year ago

    I had totally forgotten about that phone. The reviews were typical Sony - broken online offering. Broken software.

    Not interested, and it looks like they're feeling the results already. Fools.