Report: Sony refuses use of PlayStation brand for PSP phone

by Griffin McElroy on Jan 17th 2009 6:15PM

Rumors of a PSP-infused phone (or is it a phone-infused PSP?) have been circulating since the dawn of time -- we figured if anyone would be working on this Frankenportable, it would be Sony Ericsson, the beleaguered mobile phone branch of Sony Corp. However, if a report from UK cellular phone industry news site Mobile Today proves accurate, we've been in the wrong this whole time -- according to them, Sony Ericsson was recently refused the use of the PlayStation brand by their parent company. A fairly sick burn, if true.

The story, which comes from several anonymous "sources close to the matter", claims that Sony will only license the PlayStation brand if and when Sony begins making handsets independently from Ericsson. A Sony Ericsson representative wouldn't comment on the report, but did say that "technical specs are not high enough to put such a prestigious brand on a phone."

[Via Pocket Gamer]

Source

Tags: psp, psp-phone, sony, sony-ericsson

Reader Comments (71)

interesting...

Sony treats Sony-Ericsson like a sick bastard child.

...like a red-headed step child.

[fixed]

still, i heart my sony ericson phone, best phone i ever had

I agree that sony/ericsson make a good phone. How exactly is it treated like a bastard child?

aren't they doing the skype thing or whatever

If you like being tethered to a WiFi hotspot its not bad. However, it would be nice if you could use it as a "real" phone.

If there ever comes to be a PSP phone, it will....

* Ship without a UMD
* Rely on PSN for game downloads
* Come in a much smaller form size
* Have on par battery life with the PSP
* WiFi and blue-tooth of course
* Built in hard drive (possible SSD)
* OLED screen of equal resolution to current PSP
* Exclusive to a cell phone carrier that isn't AT&T
(please be Verizon...)
* Last buy not least, it will only sport the Sony and/or Playstation logo.

I love speculation...

@ blindfromthesun

Are you kidding? Verizon almost always has the worst phones out of all the major cellular providers.

While an OLED screen would be sexy as hell, if you want your PSP for under a thousand bucks, it's not happening.

uh, actually, carrier exclusivity would be ridiculously stupid.

If PSPhone was to be real, it should be available for everyone, it creates competition amongst retailers and there are more chances of a bigger userbase.

Remember that unlike mobile manufacturers, Sony makes most of their money off software sales.

You forgot the other 2 points:

*It would be heavy as hell
*The battery would only last 2 hours at most.

SSD or built in hard drive is unnecessary. I say maybe a couple gigs of dedicated memory with the ability to expand with SD or SonyDuo.

Hell, I use Verizon, so I hope it is. Everyone gets to brag about having an iPhone on Cingular, so I think it's time Verizon deserves it's own super awesome phone (although, the new Blackberry Storm is pretty sick.)

Who it God's name would BRAG about having an iPhone? I would be embarrassed.

embarrassed is taking it a bit too far dude. It may be over hyped and was insanely expensive at first, but it's still a good phone. The only things I really dislike about mine is the craptastic camera and the web broswser crashing. Even when it crashes, it's still my preferred mobile web browser. Android's comes close, but I'd rather have a larger screen instead of the auto text formatting. Opera is coming close, but it's still not up to par.

As for the PSPhone predictions, the biggest problem I have with that list is that you're sure it wouldn't be on AT&T. AT&T got the iPhone, T-Mobile got the G1, Verizon got the BB Storm, and Sprint is getting the Palm Pre. In my opinion, anyone would be fair game for carrier exclusivity if a PSPhone were to be announced today. If I had to place a bet, I think I'd actually vote that AT&T would get it, because aside from the BB Bold, they haven't gotten a big phone since the iPhone 3G, and we all know that the iPhone 3G isn't a new phone. It's like iPhone the Director's Cut.

Blind it would be on a GSM network......with means SIM CARD......that way it can be used easily anywhere in the world......

Verizon service is great. AT&T/Cingular is the most worthless service provider in the game, everyone I know who has an iPhone bitches and moans about how horribly shitty the service is. Thank the lord I switched, I thought dropped calls and crappy reception were normal and expected.

Markez: It's different for different areas. VZN is supposedly a good service in many areas, but my AT&T signal is always either on par or better than my GF's VZN signal. With everyone I know that has VZN, which is a lot of people, AT&T is a more sound network around here. No carrier is the ultimate, they all have things that suck about them.

Also, have you thought maybe about the fact that their complaining might come from the iPhone's shortcomings and not AT&T's? I'd say at this point, ALL of my cell phone related bitching is iPhone based, NOT AT&T based. The browser crashes, that's iPhone OS's fault. Apps aren't stable - iPhone OS. Speakerphone volume sucks ass - iPhone hardware, not signal strength - the AT&T Tilt I had for a bit had amazing quality with the speakerphone.

AT&T is not the most worthless provider as you put it. Around here, I would recommend them to anyone around here, unless your thing is crappy standard OS or resistive touch screens with Verizon.

"Around here, I would recommend them to anyone around here"

wow I lose the grammar game, but win the redundancy game. Don't act like you don't read your posts after you post them! :P

1. Yes, it should not be provider exclusive, but probably wouldn't be. If they managed to get a touch-screen on there, it'd be an instant iPhone killer. Verizon would probably jump at the chance to make it exclusive.

2. Cingular doesn't exist anymore. It's just AT&T now.

"prestigious"

What you mean, that thing is for real?

Fuck iPhones, I'm totally getting a PSP Phone.

By the way, assuming that the last P stands for Phone as in PlayStationPhone, wouldn't the phone at the end of title make it a part of RAS(Redundant Acronym Syndrome)syndrome along with the likes of PIN number, ATM machine and HIV virus?

I remember we had a discussion of all these once

We have a discussion about these pretty much every week. It's almost like a meme...

Ummm.... PlayStationPortable 'Phone' not PlayStationPhone as in your way of thinking.

I think he figured that out 4 years ago, jouten.

They'd have to call this the PSP or PSPP unless they came up with a gimmick name.

PSPhone? PlayFone? Call n' Play? PlayPod?

Portable Entertainment Networking Instanced System?

Sony CallStation Portable ... CSP

Nah I'd bet on PSPhone.

Nokia prove that it have to be a phone first and game device second with the failure of the n-gage. Apple has prove that the game people want to play on their phone don't need to be epic masterpiece like with a home console.

Sony could do well with a PSP phone if they understand the type of game people want to be portable are the ones that are on the PSN now. The PSP need those game to and they need to be price around $10-$15 max. The problem with the PSP is every game want to be some epic masterpiece. That's OK but we need Pixel Junk eden, PJ Monsters, SSHD, Age Of Booty, Savage Moon and Luminies. Games you can just pick up and play. Crisis Core and Chain of Olympus are nice and welcome but there needs to be lots of games chaper and smaller in scope. WHo wants to pay $30-$40 for a portable game?

Umm DS owners?

The Engage was a good idea, but the execution was so bad.

uh, no, what Nokia proved was that they had no idea of where they were going with the N-Gage, because it wasn't neither a good phone nor a good gaming device.

As for Apple, all they have proved is that people are willing to buy any game. You can't really say that people don't want "epic" games, because there are barely any to begin with, not only that, but the controls for said "epic" games are not there

"WHo wants to pay $30-$40 for a portable game?"

Many people, as long as they see value on the game, they will pay what it is asked for

"WHo wants to pay $30-$40 for a portable game?"

Square fans.

Noshino,

The majority of PSP games try to be an epic type of game. There is not enough pick up and play game for cheap. You need to have both a healthy mix of epic and pick up and play like the DS has. I like how Sony is finally start to sell their PSN games on the PSP.

There are good games on the iPhone but they are just more of what I would call smaller in scope. Fieldrunners & Diner Dash are two games that come to mind of being perfect implementations of the touch screen interface.

I have Jeanne D'Arc, Chains Of Olympus, Crisis Core, Secret Agent Clank, Star Ocean, Disgaea, MGS Portable Ops, Monster Hunter, Logans Shadow and I get far more portable play time out of N+, Luminies, Burnout, LocoRocco and Patapon because they are more accesible to just pick up and play. The first section of games are more belonging on a home console. There is room for both types but I feel the PSP suffers from having to many epic games and not enough of pick up and play games. The PSP phone would need to have mostly smaller arcade style titles at a low price to be a success because gaming is only a portion of it's purpose.

@Leo

That's where downloadable games from the PSN store come in. Unfortunately, the casuals they target don't know that.

Uh, actually, for me I find the PSP to have the most balance when it comes to "pick up and play" and "epic" games.

I know there are good games for the iPhone, I just said that because you said that their current record shows that "the game people want to play on their phone don't need to be epic masterpiece" because it isn't true, because, well, there are almost no "epic masterpieces"

There are games that take advantage of the iPhone's features, but the problem is that it doesn't have buttons, and the iPhone's touchscreen isn't responsive enough, that is a huge reason for companies to not invest as much on making "epic masterpieces" for it.

As for the PSP's balance, that is false, its just like me saying that there is no balance between shovelware and good games on the PS2, or that the 360 is a shooter console. The main reason of the PSP was to have something like those great PS2 games on the go, that meant both "epic" games and pick up and play ones.

The only thing that the PSP suffered from was awful marketing and piracy, unfortunately PSP piracy spread much faster than in any previous console.

I guess we will have to agree to disagree. It seems to me that just about every PSP game release should be on the PS2 or PS3. Glad to see them selling the PSN games on the PSP now because paying $30-$40 for every portable game is not feasible.

@ leo

believe it or not, i find patapon the most epic out of all those games. *flame suit on*

I guess so, more so after what you just said because those 2 factors also affect the DS...

- Every DS title, IMO, could also very well be released on the Wii with enhanced gameplay/graphics.

- Price of DS games tend to be a la par with those for PSP, and hell, its even worse because Nintendo takes a hell of a time to lower their prices, after all, NSMB, an 06 game that has sold millions, still 34.99. The "PSP games are more expensive than DS ones" argument is extremely exaggerated.

Quite frankly I don't think they're in a position to be snobbish about Swedes spoiling their brand.

Yeah! Nintendo will step into the phone market like Apple did and make a Nintendo Gphone (Game Phone 'as in the likes of 'GameBoy')...

the Gameboy brand is dead. It would be the Nintendo DSp, using the built in microphone/headset tp call anyone. Hell, now that I think about it, the DSi is more of a phone than the PSP

@Moptimus

The PSP isn't a phone. Where are you going with that? If both of them have mic's, wi-fi and skype then they are both wi-fi phones.

A- calling things "dead" is sounding more and more dumberer by the day

B- The GameBoy brand name isn't "dead," as the current flagship portable from Nintendo still supports GameBoy Advance games, and second hand retailers still carry used GBA games

C- I don't think I have a C, it just felt wrong to make a list with only two items in it...

uh, levi, Moptimus is right, becaue this:

"as the current flagship portable from Nintendo still supports GameBoy Advance games"

is completely false, since Nintendo has completely dropped the GBA slot of the DSi...

And well, it would be dumb for Nintendo to carry 2 Handheld brands, more so when the current one has more mainstream attention and success than the GameBoy one

If the PSP phone failed, it couldn't hurt the Playstation brand anymore than the PS3 already has. Let'em use it.

uh, not really, you see, the PS3 is following the successful PS1 and PS2, with which Sony had gained a lot of ground on the console department.

The PSP had an uphill battle against Nintendo, no one had been able to survive on the handheld department. The PSP was Sony's first gaming handheld, if the next PSP is to fail, then everything that Sony had gained with the PSP it would have been for nothing, not only that, if Apple is to really focus more on gaming, then they would get some of those disappointed by the newest PSP.

So yah, if the PSP phone is to fail, although the financial loses at the time wouldn't be as big, they would lose a lot of their mobile crowd, almost definitely wiping them off handheld gaming

xbot alert

They have a point. They would have to have decent versions of the most "Playstation" of the Playstations games and that would be a lot of work. The only good phone games are driving games and that wouldn't be worth making a new system for.

PSP-Phone

step 1:
- VZW
- No shitty VZW GUI
- XMB
- UMD + Memory Stick (I don't see why everyone hates UMD)
- Wifi

step 2:
insta-buy for me

step 3:
????

step 4:
PROFIT

It is Verizon's policy to not allow Wifi in cellphones on their network. They're afraid someone will create a VOIP app to avoid using Verizon minutes, so I would expect a PSP Phone on their network to be gimped compared to what you'd receive on other networks.

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Report: Sony refuses use of PlayStation brand for PSP phone

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