Sony staffing up for iPhone rival - report

By Robert Purchese Published 29 June, 2009

Work could begin in July.

Sony is thinking about merging game and phone in an attempt to compete with Apple's wildly popular iPhone.

The company is gathering a team to tackle the task as soon as July, according to Japanese press giant Nikkei, picked up by Reuters. The hardware is described as a cross between the PSP and a Sony Ericsson mobile phone.

Sony Ericsson has combined famous Sony brands - Walkman, Cyber-shot - into mobile handsets before. Ericsson, however, was denied use of the PlayStation brand at the turn of the year, after much speculation of the existence of a crossover device. Sony deemed Ericsson's technology not powerful enough to do the PlayStation name justice.

Despite the snub, Sony Ericsson's new phone includes the ability to remotely control PlayStation 3, as well as support for PlayTV content.

Sony's emulation of - or reaction to - Apple's iPhone success may even go one step further, as the PlayStation maker is rumoured to be working on an App Store-style service for the PSPgo.

Sony has so far declined to comment.

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.

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

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Comments (33) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Wobbler #1 3 years ago

    That Sony is only now “considering” this epitomizes everything that’s wrong with them. They’ve been making both cell phones and handheld video game systems for years, and yet it didn’t occur to them to fuse the two until after the iPhone became a smash hit. It’s as though they learned nothing after watching the iPod kill the Walkman.

    (Not my words, but from here: Daring Fireball)
    Edited by 2 at 29/06/09 @ 14:09

  • MaxiSleep #2 3 years ago

    Epic Fail.

  • Dizzy #3 3 years ago

    Well they certainly are big enough to try this and the name Playstation certainly might go down well with phone lovers. They really need to nail the hardware and price though, many have been slaughtered by Apple in the past due to wrongly conceived products.

  • woodnotes #4 3 years ago

    Great. By the time it comes out Apple will have released the iTeleporter.

  • GundamJehutyKai #5 3 years ago

    why oh why?

    I understand that the iphone is wildly popular, but at the end of the day, it is NOT a gaming device, contrary to what other parties may say. yes, there are lots of games on the app store, but many are naff and/or have awful controls due to the touchscreen only interface.

    Surely a device which combines the gameplaying ability and workable control mechanism for a handheld while serving up all the features now expected from a phone will result in something which doesn't do either very well!! It'll probably be unncecesarily bulky as well.

  • Toothball #6 3 years ago

    Remember what happened last time someone tried to weld a phone and a gaming device together? I don't think the world was ready for Sidetalkin'. Hopefully Sony will manage to bring it back for good.
    Edited by 1 at 29/06/09 @ 14:41

  • HermitArcader #7 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • menage #8 3 years ago

    I don't want a phone to play games, listen music, etc, I need to have a phone when I need to fucking call someone.

  • degville #9 3 years ago

    I for one couldn't understand why the PSP go didn't have phone fucntionality. I would of thought it obvious and perhaps they could of got away with the price they want to charge...

  • DrDamn #10 3 years ago

    @Wobbler
    I think failures of other devices like the N-Gage demonstrated you needed to spend a lot of time and resources getting it right. At the time I think Sony needed to concentrate on their core business of PS3 and PSP more - complicating matters with a game/phone hybrid would have been very difficult to pull off. Now these are better established they can learn from what Apple did right.

  • Mudo #11 3 years ago

    "If they are doing this why put out the PSP go then is my thought"
    Cos this might take years to develop.

    "I don't want a phone to play games, listen music, etc"
    I do.

  • Wobbler #12 3 years ago

    @DrDamn I agree -- making a product like this isn't simple, despite Apple making look easy.

    But that said, it doesn't seem to be rocket science here -- as Vertical Stand & degville said, I think that they could have done something similar with the PSP Go. Take the Go, make it a couple of mm thicker if required, add a touchscreen, camera, a 3G chipset, and a dialler function inside the XMB and job done. Easy :)
    Edited by 4 at 29/06/09 @ 15:17

  • penhalion #13 3 years ago

    This sounds great on paper. The problem is that Sony don't have any form of open standard and so will neither attract nor have access to the thousands upon thousands of bedroom coders that have made the Apple App Store what it is today.

    Who in their right mind will pick up a Sony game phone, which will have the occasional application and game released for it after years of development and months of sony release scedule faffing. When they can have an iPhone, which is guaranteed to have some new app or game almost every day of the year. The sony games will also no doubt be rediculously priced too.

    I see no evidence that Sony want to create anything like the Apple app store. For instance, they haven't announced a development program that anyone can be part of. They haven't announced any public available SDK etc. etc.

    Why Eurogamer and others bother to compare sorry store creation attempts of the likes of Sony Nintendo and Microsoft to the open development system that underpins the App Store is beyond me.

  • Toothball #14 3 years ago

    @penhalion:

    I'd buy a PSP phone over an iPhone, but that's mostly because I have a predisposition against Apple products and interfaces.

  • skillian #15 3 years ago

    @penhalion

    Rightly or wrongly, presumably people would expect more from a game for the PSP phone than an iPhone. I think you're underestimating the size of that appeal.

    There is also of course the issue of cost, and if an PSP phone can appear with equivalent hardware to the iPhone at a significantly lower cost (no reason why not) then you've opened up another big market.

    If your basic argument is that anyone who would be interested in a phone like this would already have the iPhone, I think that's way too simplistic.

  • AphoticCosmos #16 3 years ago

    So we can expect another generic offering like the HTC Magic and Hero, then?

    I usually detest Apple, but they're on to a winner with the iPhone and iPod Touch.

  • skillian #17 3 years ago

    I don't know, I could be wrong of course, but i think if they actually do release a PSP phone it's likely to be pretty different from the other phones out there and a long way from a 'generic' handset.

  • udat #18 3 years ago

    Isn't some sort of App Store type online shop fundamental to the features and ideas behind the PSPgo?

  • dadrester #19 3 years ago

    a psp with the ability to "go online" without needing to be in a wifi hotspot would be great.

  • Ryze #20 3 years ago

    Sony - you've no chance, as the first poster has explained.

  • skillian #21 3 years ago

    a psp with the ability to "go online" without needing to be in a wifi hotspot would be great.

    True.

    All I need is something with a big screen that can play video and music and browse the web while on the train. If the PSP could do this I'd have bought one ages ago and just stuck with a simple nokia phone.

  • Retroid #22 3 years ago

    This is a bit late, isn't it?

    Like it or not, the iPhone will probably have the gaming phone handset market to itself for a good while yet.

    /Has a PSP, doesn't have an iPhone

  • JensonJet #23 3 years ago

    Does anyone use a mobile phone for talking on these days, or is that a bit 90s? I completely fail to understand the love and fascination in phones. Is it an extension of the love little boys have for walkie-talkies? Or is it about people's fear of appearing lower-class or poor if they don't have one? I geniunely find them as exciting as a home telephone, or calculator, or stopwatch. Does anyone who doesn't use one for business understand exactly why they love these little gadgets? Does not the fact the majority have to continually upgrade their toys each year say a lot about what they actually think of them?

  • Nithron #24 3 years ago

    I like how all the phone manufacturers were happy to keep trundling along releasing an identical handset every week with some random number for a name, until Apple entered the market and now suddenly they're all scrambling to actually make decent products.

    And failing.

  • smelly #25 3 years ago

    Suddenly the "pspgo" makes sense.

  • smelly #26 3 years ago

    >I completely fail to understand the love and fascination in phones.

    Thats like saying "i fail to understand the love of games machines"?

    With regards to an iphone.. I dont have one myself (have no need for one). But it's a phone and gaming platform in one. I.e. it's a space saver, saves you carrying a phone in one pocket (for calls) and a DS/psp in the other pocket (for games) during long journeys, etc etc.

    Surely it makes sense to put them all into one?

    If they got the cameras better on these things, that's another thing you dont need to carry around with you while sight seeing. Ditto to mp3 players.

    Surely it's better to have 1 gadget than 4?

  • smelly #27 3 years ago

    The battery is the main reason i wont buy an iphone. ... Not being able to replace it STINKS of money grabbing from apple.

    When i go on long trips, i always take a spare fully charged phone battery with me (just in case of emergencies!)

  • hilts #28 3 years ago

    why all the iphone hate? I have a fat original psp (battery is not great) and a DS - both well played... also bought the iphone 3G S last week and have to say am mighty impressed! biggest negative is the battery (i just get 2 days out of it if using all the functions) but it is slick, great to have itunes and podcasts, camera and video are simple clear easy to upload, many useful apps like restaurant finders and facebook, inuitive interface and then there's the games... so cheap and of course like all platforms lots of dross but if you do your homework and check reviews... games such as cops n robbers , edge, tiki towers and dropship are as entertaining as many a game 30 x as expensive!

  • FladgeMangle #29 3 years ago

    Sony could have easily made the PSP Go an iPod Touch killer (which is the real competition, let's face it), but instead they elected to simply make a lazy and stupidly over-priced chassis change of the original system. Minus a bit of scrap metal.

    Then on top of that they decide piss away money while undermining their half arsed efforts with an iPhone also ran?

    I adore the PSP and it breaks my heart see the format so abused, possibly even unto death.

  • pokeken #30 3 years ago

    ok..this is just bound to fail badly.....lets look at how well sony does in both these markets.....PSP=totally outsold by DS with only home brew community buying it. Sony ericcsson = only fifth in market share in the UK...

    you can imagine the sony strategy bods coming up with this "brainwave" sitting in their plush top floor office....

    ..doomed doomed doomed...stringer better wake up and kill this off before sony is further embarassed and incurr more losses.

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #31 3 years ago

    "I understand that the iphone is wildly popular, but at the end of the day, it is NOT a gaming device, contrary to what other parties may say. yes, there are lots of games on the app store, but many are naff and/or have awful controls due to the touchscreen only interface. "

    Short version: Complete bollocks.
    Long version: http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.co...

  • GundamJehutyKai #32 3 years ago

    ""I understand that the iphone is wildly popular, but at the end of the day, it is NOT a gaming device, contrary to what other parties may say. yes, there are lots of games on the app store, but many are naff and/or have awful controls due to the touchscreen only interface. "

    Short version: Complete bollocks.
    Long version: [link url=http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.co...]http://world ofstuart.excellentcontent.co...[/link] "

    Short Version: Not complete bollocks
    Long Version: Being an iphone owner (and also rather happy with it as a device in general) I can attest that in fact, the article gets several things wrong. While there are some good games on the appstore, They are far and away the exception rather than the norm. For me, portable gaming means more than being able to play something for a few minutes without wanting to destroy the device. Also, iphone games are very short. You can complete them in 15~20 minutes.
    That may be fine for a short commute to work but what about a trip which lasts a few hours? well, the battery wouldn't last that long anyway, but I digress.
    The tilt is pretty horrible as a controller. I have a shooter called abigale which, while a mild distraction, uses tilt controls and they completely lack the sensitivity to play it properly. Hell, a touch control would have been better! It also doesn't help that I have to adjust the position of the phone, often uncomfortably, everytime I play it.
    And I don't understand why companies are so willing to port over old "classic" games which need traditional controls onto the appstore.

    At the end of the day, I'm not saying that phones and portable gaming are mutually exclusive but I don't see this as being the way forward. portable gaming is best when you are given the option to pick up and play whenever and wherever you want, not forcefeeding the experience in less-than-bitesized chunks.

    Going back on topic. I still don't see combining the PSP and mobile phone together being a good thing, for a variety of reasons (aesthetics and batterylife being the main 2) so I'm inclined to believe that it will be a neutered gaming experience which will rely heavily on the rumoured sony appstore wannabe. Again, not exactly the best direction for portable gaming.

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #33 3 years ago

    I'd like to see you complete Geo Defense in 15-20 minutes. Or Sentinel. Or Ferrari GT. Or Car Jack Streets. Or Dark Nova. Or (etc etc).

    But even leaving your extremely stereotypical and inaccurate portrayal of iPhone games aside, the whole reason the PSP got its arse kicked so badly by the DS is that it tried to bring overlong, bloated home-type games to a portable format, which for 95% of people isn't the point of a portable format in the first place. It's for games which aren't designed for "completion" at all, but for replay value over short periods, often on a high-score basis. Flight Control can't be "completed", yet people play it endlessly. If you're expecting the iPod to be a PS3 it's no wonder you're disappointed.