News Sony hints at hand-held gaming market exit

I think it'd make more sense for Sony to sell another one of those hybrid phone + mobile consoles again. The first one, from what I recall, was a failure due to running too hot and poor battery life. I'm sure they have the ability to fix that now. If they can make it play PS Vita and android games, they've got a real solid product that I think would sell very well.

 

I don't think it is a hardware issue. I think it is more a financial issue in that the market just isn't there any more as most mobile gamers are happy with the games available for their smartphones, especially when people often move from one device to another and can still keep their previous apps and games which just isn't possible for Sony unless they become just another developer for Android.

 

i'd rather they did exit the mobile market, the vita had huge potential and they squandered it all with complete lack of first-party development, some baffling omissions on the PSone front and no ps2 ports.

@schmidtbag - i'd jump all over a new sony play phone as i loved my original one (and still use it as an alarm clock) but it wasn't the hardware that was at fault but again the lack of support for games (very few PSone ports and games patched for the physical controls). superb gadget for emulators though, same design with a slightly larger screen and modern processor would be wonderful.

 

They ported most of there big titles but there's a distinct lack of good games.

 

I'd never heard of the Sony Play Phone, but I've been saying for ages that Nintendo should build telephony into a 3DS-type device.

Surely most of the people that own PSP, Vita or Nintendo handheld would prefer to carry one device, not two. But it needs backing with marketing and games, some proper commitment that is apparently lacking.

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Je2z+fioL._SX425_.jpg

posted a long rant about how it came out at a bad time as phones were getting faster, bigger and lighter rapidly, and that it got a completely useless official game store, but decided to remember it fondly instead :S

i'd still buy a new one in an instant if it had fairly budget innards (moto G or one of the many sub-£100 carrier branded phones), a 4.5 or 5" screen and a price of under £150, no need to change the design at all - even with specs modest by todays standards it could probably emulate dreamcast and playstation portable games (some dedicated modders have both of those running on the original 1ghz singlecore play !)

 

It did come out at the wrong time. Too fat for a phone, too small for a handheld. Crap battery for a phone if you wanted to game on it. And it was a flimsy POS too, with the top half bending under its own weight.

They could try again for a 5.5" with decent specs and bags of space, but it needs compelling exclusives to really draw people.

 

- Take the outer portions of the Vita (the controls and bezel)
- Knock out the screen in the centre
- Insert a phone (heck, even make it Xperia-only as long as it's part of the bootloader unlocking program) in the cleared space
- Take all of my money