Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Release Date Announced – Play Date

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play slaps on physical gaming controls to an Android 2.3 smartphone and now has an official UK launch date.

The Xperia Play (aka PlayStation Phone) will arrive on March 31st with six games pre-installed: Tetris, Crash Bandicoot,FIFA 10, The Sims 3, Bruce Lee Dragon Warriors and Star Battalion. In addition to those, there’ll be around 50 games available through the PlayStation Suite service. These will be made up of classic PlayStation One titles and smartphone games that have been optimised for the device.

Sony Ericsson is pushing their gamer-centric Play through all of the networks and as many retail sources as possible. According to Sony Ericsson’s UK and Ireland Marketing Director, David Hilton, the playful Xperia release will be supported by:

“The biggest marketing campaign we have had in the UK.”

The Xperia Play is rockin a 4-inch touchscreen with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor under the hood hooked up to an Adreno 205 graphics processor.

If you want the white model which has a matching dock then toddle over to O2 as they have the exclusive on that one 😉

I’ve had some hands-on time with the SE Xperia Play and the main draw to the device is the natty gaming controls – but is that enough to drag you away from the likes of the arc? Have a read here 🙂