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PlayStation Team Wants Android Engineers

By - Source: Tom's Hardware US | B 33 comments

Sony's PlayStation team is looking for engineers with Android development experience fueling reports that the company is planning a PSP phone powered by Android.

There is absolutely nothing new about PSP phone rumors. Every since smartphones hit the mainstream, there's been will they/won't they talk regarding a phone based on Sony's popular handheld gaming console. However, Android Central points to a recent Sony PlayStation job posting for a server engineer based in London that requires applicants to have "experience in mobile development, specifically Android."

Android Central speculates that Sony is aiming to pad its internal game development teams with some Android talent to ensure they have launch titles for an Android PSP phone. Engadget's Nilay Patel writes that they could be prepping an Android/PSN service to combat Xbox Live on Windows Phone 7 and Apple's iOS Game Center.

The most recent rumors involving a PlayStation phone was word of an Xperia-branded phone that would also carrier the PlayStation brand and feature a touchscreen measuring between 3.7- and 4.1-inches and a slide out panel with game controls. Instead of analog controls, the device is said to have a long narrow touchpad. The phone is said to boast a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU under the hood and a 5-megapixel camera. Android 3.0 would be the operating system along with a custom UI on top.

Would you buy a PSP phone running Android? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Android Central, Sony, Engadget

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  • 5 Hide
    darkchazz , September 21, 2010 11:09 PM
    Sony should put two analog sticks or fps games would suck.
  • 7 Hide
    liveonc , September 21, 2010 11:15 PM
    Maybe if it includes Google Voice Call or Skype. It could be everything Nokia N-Gage was supposed to be! ;-)
  • 0 Hide
    joytech22 , September 21, 2010 11:29 PM
    If it ran android, i'd buy it.
    Of course i'd buy it anyway if it didn't but won't be as happy unless it did.
  • Display all 33 comments.
  • 5 Hide
    Darkv1 , September 21, 2010 11:41 PM
    The concept of a PSP phone running Android could be quite cool. I am looking forward to getting more info though. Price and carrier availability could make or kill this one.
  • 1 Hide
    maxh2 , September 21, 2010 11:46 PM
    I'm not buying another phone until it'll actually be an UPgrade, not a sidegrade, to my nexus one with 1GHz processor that's been out for longer than it takes to gestate a human baby.
  • 1 Hide
    biao39 , September 21, 2010 11:46 PM
    I have Sony's flagship Xperia 10 which runs Android 1.6! Sony promised an upgrade later this year to Android 2.2 which is already old... Maybe they just need android engineers to make sure their flagship phones are not 1-2 years behind the rest of everybody else.
  • 0 Hide
    Anonymous , September 21, 2010 11:50 PM
    I just hid the 299.00 in my pillow so that I would not spend it. Now the only issue is which carrier would this be on. Me thinks I know. At&t! Why your ask? Because GSM is just about everywhere. No one with place this on CDMA. Although I would love to have a PSP phone on Cricket! LOL!
  • 0 Hide
    adamboy64 , September 22, 2010 12:17 AM
    Please, be true! Oh gees. I've been hoping for a PSPhone, to the point of near hysteria. It's the only thing that could turn my loyalty away from Nokia.
  • -6 Hide
    matt87_50 , September 22, 2010 12:26 AM
    android platform sucks for gaming...

    oh yes, all those professional game devs are really gonna want to start coding all their games in Java...

    God I hope they improve the dev toolchains.

  • 0 Hide
    renami9 , September 22, 2010 1:51 AM
    PSP phone? will i buy it? of course, i'll even pre-order, so i can just bring a PSP phone instead of a PSP AND a phone anywhere i go.
  • 0 Hide
    dEAne , September 22, 2010 1:52 AM
    he he I will wait for that.
  • 0 Hide
    bachok83 , September 22, 2010 2:00 AM
    wait.. i thought my Galaxy S can already run games? No?
  • 0 Hide
    aznshinobi , September 22, 2010 2:02 AM
    matt87_50android platform sucks for gaming...oh yes, all those professional game devs are really gonna want to start coding all their games in Java...God I hope they improve the dev toolchains.


    Androids "Might" that's a big maybe, suck at gaming. But although i love the iPhone, Android is just so much lighter and faster than iOS4. My friends iPhone is not even half filled (it's a 3GS) and it's slower than watching paint dry. (more like slower than my cousins G1) so... I think I give android props, but... At least the iPhone has jailbreak XD even though thats illegal.
  • 0 Hide
    liquidsnake718 , September 22, 2010 2:17 AM
    You know what, i had a SONY P1i before, it died on me and the most important touch button, the menu, didnt work when pressed so I ditched it and sold it. But now after reading this, I think I might get back into getting another SOny Ericsson mobile again. THey did sport good cameras and great quality build.
  • 0 Hide
    feeddagoat , September 22, 2010 2:43 AM
    I don't think they want android for its phone features but more is application based gaming features. Both app markets on iphone and android are huge and sony have only been marginally successful with their PSN minis copying them. With android already being established and PSP providing decent hardware aimed at gaming, applications could take a huge leap forward.

    Does anyone remember Ngage? it was a good idea but in the end do you want something as bulky as a psp to act as your phone? Not to mention battery life of such a device if its heavily used!I can't really see it being kept within reasonable costs without it sucking as a phone or a gaming device. Maybe touch screens could change that but I can still see it costing too much if its to get the balance right between performance, battery and functionality.
  • 0 Hide
    Gin Fushicho , September 22, 2010 3:02 AM
    I just don't know. if it's meant as a gaming platform, than it would have to be a "no".
  • 0 Hide
    hemelskonijn , September 22, 2010 3:17 AM
    The android powered PSP mobile phone hybrid might be cool as long as it has an UMD drive or any other way of loading store bought games and the screen wont get any smaller. Also the games wont have to be written in java since they could just as easily use android as a subsystem or use some advanced hypervisor to run android parallel to a game OS or as a last resort they could just re-modify android to their needs.
  • 0 Hide
    kronos_cornelius , September 22, 2010 3:18 AM
    Why are they putting a snaptdragon ship? They should go with tegra2. I have not read of the specs. But just on name brand along, I am willing to bet (except where prohibited by law) the Tegra2 is more powerful and would be ideal for gaming. I would not buy one though. I get more excited about the tech behind it than about playing games on a small screen. For game, I prefer to use my Desktop.
  • 0 Hide
    nexus9113 , September 22, 2010 3:25 AM
    I still don't see a major software entertainment system maker going with an open operating system that they don't control the rights to publish for.

    Even the systems that had a Windows based OS (Dreamcast, Xbox, and 360) were so closed in their manufacturing you still needed to purchase a dev kit to legitimately develop for it.

    Open OS on gaming consoles will lead to the same inevitable fate that the grandfather consoles of gaming faced when there were too many developers releasing poor quality titles in large amounts in the early 80's. Didn't we learn anything from the crash of '83?

    As much as people complained about how Nintendo controlled every aspect of game production on its system, it was that strategy that allowed the gaming market to rebuild itself, and we've kept the same strategy for years. Now we are going to go backwards and repeat the same mistakes.

    If the iPhone was strictly a gaming system, and there was no phone plan or music portion of iTunes to tie to it to constantly draw revenue, it would have failed long ago on the software side due to the massive amounts of shovelware on its store. I mean really, how many damn tower defense, castle siege, infinite looped platform jumping, and catapulting games do we need?

    We don't need an open OS on a console, we need one that is closed so that there is a greater level of QA for games being published for the system. Open OS's are really only viable on phones (to make among other things, interoperability between carriers and other models easier), computers (because sometimes you just need to customize certain things for varying hardware and needs) and home theatre entertainment devices like BD players and TV's so that it's easier for those to interact with each other with HDMI-CIC content and such.

    Consoles don't need open OS's because there isn't any variation in the actual hardware specs aside from some improved fabrication processes to reduce cost and increase power/heat efficiency. The only reason anyone would need (and I'm talking actual NEED not WANT because I might use it on a random whim) an open OS on a console is to pirate and/or practice developing games. Which is what the general consumer does not do, and therefore tips the entire balance of risk reward for the manufacturer to leave themselves open to possible malicious use versus the additional appeal to the mostly rare power user who would make use of it without abusing it. Also, makes things easier when it comes to troubleshooting, for the most part with a closed OS, if you have an issue it's one they are aware of and know how to fix (or if it can't be fixed) and expedites the process a lot faster than if there was an open OS where someone could literally rewrite the kernel and jack things up beyond belief.
  • -1 Hide
    matt87_50 , September 22, 2010 3:53 AM
    kronos_corneliusWhy are they putting a snaptdragon ship? They should go with tegra2. I have not read of the specs. But just on name brand along, I am willing to bet (except where prohibited by law) the Tegra2 is more powerful and would be ideal for gaming. I would not buy one though. I get more excited about the tech behind it than about playing games on a small screen. For game, I prefer to use my Desktop.


    thats a good point actually. Qualcom GPUs have sucked mostly. atleast use a powerVR chip or something...
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