14 DAY TRIAL // Sony Ericsson and the organizers of Major League Gaming have announced a partnership that will make the new line of smarthpones the Xperia Play the official mobile gaming handset for the competition.
From April 1 the MLG Pro Circuit events will have demonstrations showing how the Xperia Play works, with game challenges involving both pro gamers and those coming from the public and giveaways.
MLG pro players Dave “Walshy” Walsh and coach Andy “JT Bravo” Dudynsky will be sponsored directly by Sony Ericsson through the Xperia brand.
Sony also plans to create a new segment during the MLG events where important games and applications for the new mobile gaming platform will be presented to the public.
Peter Farmer, who is the head of marketing for North America at Sony Ericsson, has stated, “Sony Ericsson is redefining mobile gaming with Xperia Play. It's designed to give you everything you need from a fully featured smartphone and the one thing you want– the ultimate mobile gaming experience. We know that Major League Gaming's community of gamers will put that gaming experience to the ultimate test and we're looking forward to connecting with this highly engaged global community.”
Sundance DiGiovanni, who is the CEO of Major League Gaming, has added, “At MLG, we aim to showcase the latest technology that will benefit our community of gamers. Xperia Play is an amazing smartphone and a stellar gaming device bringing the best mobile capabilities to our audience.”
The Xperia Play will have access to the PlayStation branded video games through the Suite application although the developers at Sony have not said exactly what games will arrive on the new platform.
At the moment, Sony is also working on the PlayStation Portable 2, which it is calling the NGP, a more powerful handheld that will launch before the end of 2011 and will deliver the same gaming power as the home based PlayStation 3.