There hasn’t been a big participation when it comes to Android’s gaming platform. Most apps that show up in the app store are daily-use or work-related, which lacks the fun-factor. The number of games for Android has been small when compared to the iOS platform. Bu that’s about to change, as Sony gets its ‘1337 skillz’ onto the green monsters’ home. Engadget has news that says that ‘the company is actively and heavily developing a brand new gaming platform, ecosystem, and device which are already in the late stages of planning’. Perhaps this is where those game developing companies bought by Google steps in. What’s more, it’s going to be Android 3.0!

Hardware wise, the device is described as a hybrid of the Samsung Galaxy S and the PSP Go, which roughly renders a landscape slider with game controls instead of the usual QWERTY keyboard. A somewhat thick smartphone that has a 4-inch touchscreen panel with slide-out D-pad along with a ‘long but tiny touchpad’ for analog controls, and the usual PSP buttons and shoulder buttons. Seemed rather crowded to me, but there’s no official photos out yet so we can’t actually tell how it will really look like. The phone will also feature 5-Megapixel camera, not final, but sounds ‘okay’ to me, for a gaming phone. The games will be powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU.

Software wise, the device’s gonna run on Gingerbread (Android 3.0) with a customized UI obviously. Google is said to provide a specific ‘Games’ section at the App Market which will initially only be accessible to this phone, but soon will be open to the rest of the droid gangs. Games will be graphically in the range of PSX or PSP games, meaning true 3D gaming is headed to Android. Titles currently being shown off seem to be focused around some older PSX as well as new PSP offerings, with God of War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and LittleBigPlanet possibly on tap, and future plans for titles which incorporate augmented reality features.

No official words from Sony and Google as of now, but words have it that it might hit shelves as early as October, or perhaps targeted for Christmas mega sales. Sony is said to give it an ‘Xperia’ name, but market it under PlayStation or PSP, like how their Cybershot phones. Something like Nokia’s N-Gage, but million times better? Sounds very exciting for those young at heart!

SOURCE via Engadget