14 DAY TRIAL // Some information on Sony Ericsson's gaming phone has surfaced, although it is now clear that we are not talking about a PSP handset, as first rumors showed. There are high chances that the company will bring out its first such device in February, as most recent rumors state.
The fact that the handset producer is working on such a device has long ceased to be something surprising, especially as Sony Ericsson games boss Peter Ahnegard confirmed at the recent Leipzig gaming conference the company's work in this way. At that time, he could not put an exact date on when this should happen, although it was something that he did not deny.
Sony Ericsson already has two major lines of phones aiming at specific targets, in its Walkman and Cyber-shot series. Starting a third one, for gaming phones, would ask for a huge amount of resources that would have to be cut down from the two main phone series. Because of this, the company has been reluctant for a long time on developing gaming phones, although a special market segment has long started to take shape for this type of devices too.
The fact that strong competitors have also started working on bringing their own gaming phones out on the market must have been a strong impulse too. Nokia's line of N-Gage phones has surely given a serious reason for this to happen and pushed Sony Ericsson to keep up with them.
Rumors state that a Sony Ericsson gaming phone will be presented at the Mobility World Congress in February. This means that the company has reached an evolved state in its game developing process and is now considering a time limit for putting details in place and bringing it out to the public. This was easy to see right from Peter Ahnegard's statement, as he assured everyone that a Sony Ericsson gaming phone will surely come in the future. It is even better that we now have an estimate date set for this to happen, as vague as it might be.