It has been a long road for the Xperia Play. Photos, specs, and videos of the game-friendly Android 2.3 phone were leaked many months in advance of its official launch, which happened today at the Sony Ericsson keynote. The Play will be the first PlayStation certified device. It will come preloaded with a “legendary PlayStation title”, and look for around 50 PlayStation titles to be available at time of launch. Some games from other smartphone platforms will be ported to the Xperia Play with additional levels. Naturally, you’ll be able to play Android Market games on the Play and take advantage of the added hardware controls. Certainly, not all games will support the full suite of buttons that the Play includes.

Oddly, Sony Ericsson didn’t disclose specifications during the event. Fortunately, thanks to previous leaks, we already have a pretty good idea on what the Xperia Play is packing under the hood: a 1GHz Snapdragon single-core CPU, 512MB of RAM, a 4″ 854×480 display, 1500mAh battery, and 5MP camera with flash. It’ll start shipping in March on Verizon (as we suspected). You can learn a bit more about the Xperia Play on Sony Ericsson’s Facebook page.

Update: Specs are out! The Play is actually rocking a 1 GHz Scorpion ARMv7 single-core CPU with 400MB of RAM (strange number, perhaps this is an error). It comes with an 8GB microSD card. It’s quite thick at 16mm, though with a slide-out controller, that is to be expected.

Via: Engadget