Sony Ericsson’s announcement of the Xperia Play (aka the PSP Phone) does not come as a surprise as the online community has already been actively discussing about it long before the official announcement. The Xperia Play runs on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and user can play PSP game titles. But before you start rejoicing and sell away your PSP on GameTrader.SG, do note that Xperia Play does not come with a UMD drive.This means owner of current UMD PSP games cannot port their game over to Xperia Play.

Apart from this, do not expect Xperia Play to have a whole suite of the PSP game library. Games for Xperia Play must be converted for its Android OS and thus the PSP games from the current PS Store will not work for Xperia Play. Instead of going to PS Store, user will have to go to a separate Sony Ericsson Online App Store.

Comparing Sony’s attempt to Nokia’s N-Gage, I feel that Xperia Play may be able to garner more buyers than its N-Gage counterpart. N-Gage’s failure is caused mainly by the lack of support from game developer resulting in a poor library of titles. The greatest rival to date for Play is ironically the recently announced NGP (Next-Generation PSP). With all the attention now mainly on NGP, developers may unlikely produce titles for this new device. While we are not sure whether the conversion process of PSP titles to Android-friendly ones will require much work from the game developer, if that is true, Xperia Play may have trouble tapping on the current PSP library of games. Developers may simply feel that such investment is not needed.

To me, the price tag will now be an important factor. If Xperia Play which is running Android (my current favorite OS) comes at a competitive price compared to say Samsung’s Android phone or iPhone, I may consider getting one when my mobile plan expires. However, if the price is $150-$250 more than a usual decent android smartphone, I will rather get a NGP when it comes out.

For more information on Xperia Play, check out Engadget.com.