HTC smartphones and tablets to be PlayStation certified - report

By Robert Purchese Published 15 February, 2012

Sony's Android spread begins.

Smartphone and tablet maker HTC will be the first non-Sony company to be PlayStation certified, according to Pocket-lint.

Sources said an official announcement is planned for later this year - maybe at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of the month. Certification will apparently be awarded in the second-half of the year.

If true, HTC smartphones and tablets will be able to access the PlayStation Suite. And there you can buy "legendary" PlayStation 1 games to play on your Android device.

At the moment, however, the PlayStation Suite "under-delivers". Digital Foundry's Richard Leadbetter, when reviewing Sony's PlayStation-certified S and P tablets, described the Suite thus:

derby

Destruction Derby still looks great today - like Gran Turismo 5!

"It basically offers the same functionality that the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play's 'PlayStation Pocket' gateway does; namely, you can download a frustratingly narrow selection of crusty old 32-bit original PlayStation titles for around four quid a pop."

"The current library is disappointingly limited; Crash Bandicoot comes pre-installed (just as it did on the Xperia Play) and other available titles such as Destruction Derby, Cool Boarders and Jet Moto hardly cause the heart to skip a beat.

"One would sincerely hope that such slim pickings will improve as time goes on, but the trickle of software available for the Xperia Play has almost completely dried up - which hardly fills you with confidence that the Tablet S and Tablet P will fare any better.

"Hopefully the PS Vita connection with the PlayStation Suite will bear some fruit but in the here and now it comes across as a woefully poor platform," he added.

HTC met the news with a traditional "we can't comment on rumours of speculation".

Sony's PlayStation-certified tablet.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (16) Latest comment 3 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Eraser #1 3 months ago

    So will this be true for all HTC devices or just upcoming devices?

  • arcam #2 3 months ago

    Presumably it will be only on phones/tablets powerful enough to run the games, but I'd imagine that covers nearly all upcoming devices.

  • Ryze #3 3 months ago

    Vita/Android Tablet, pls...

  • Whitster #4 3 months ago

    Great now HTC owners can be unimpressed with a paltry game selection and then install an emulator anyway.
    Edited by Whitster at 15/02/12 @ 12:44

  • bad09 #5 3 months ago

    And the death of proprietary gaming hardware begins. Bring it on.

  • Oskool #6 3 months ago

    Needs a PS1 port of Final Fantasy VII or I'm not interested. ;)

  • simsini #7 3 months ago

    Even more games that aren't designed to be played without buttons. Great.

  • razzafazza #8 3 months ago

    PS2 classics and PSP games and playstation suite would suddenly become a lot more attractive...

    ...but as long as its just PS ONE games i really cant see them having much success with that.

  • callum9999 #9 3 months ago

    @Ryze I really can't envisage how such a thing could possibly work? For the screen to be big enough to be a usable tablet the device would a) have to be pretty big and b) wouldn't be at all comfortable to hold as a controller.

  • Toothball #10 3 months ago

    I was going to ask whether this meant the Suite would see a few more games, but it seems unlikely if they haven't beefed up the selection for their own tablets.

  • jonchapman #11 3 months ago

    Great. I'd love to see an official Sony Playstation keyboard/mouse blu tooth application on android, too.

  • memeroot #12 3 months ago

    I liked Destruction Derby

  • Snake_2011 #13 3 months ago

    it could be amazing soon if they start adding lots of there Minis PSN stuff.

  • frou #14 3 months ago

    I don't understand why they think PS1 games are worth releasing. Most early 3D stuff does not age well at all.

    I mean, I was mad about Cool Boarders when it came out in the 90s, but it's complete garbage now. I wouldn't play it for free
    Edited by frou at 15/02/12 @ 19:13

  • penhalion #15 3 months ago

    Means nothing unless Sony make good on their playstation suite. It was supposed to be like the ios app program but, it's looking increasingly like Sony got cold feet. Now you have to jump through silly "keep the indies out" hoops to join it.

    I fear they have killed what would have been a serious money spinner for the vita before it even had any real legs. Pity as, with the power of the vita, indies and bedroom coders could have made it something special and earned a few bucks as incentive.

  • riseer #16 3 months ago

    @frou You may not like it now but gaming had to start somewhere.. respect that.