'Playstation Phone' Has April 2011 Release Date?

Sony Ericsson has announced today that it will reveal its Playstation/Android mobile handset (now called the Xperia Play) to the world on the 13th February 2011 at the Mobile World Congress event, which is being held in Barcelona. The official reveal is expected to occur around 6PM British Time.

 News of the reveal comes after a lot of hype, speculation and debunking by various Playstation and Sony Ericsson officials. However, an advertisement for the product was recently released on YouTube and was also shown at the American Super Bowl this weekend, so an official announcement did somehow seem imminent.

It is not clear  exactly what details will be included in the Sony Ericsson reveal, but from what we know so far, the Xperia Play handset is capable of playing Android-powered mobile games and PS One games, although sadly it apparently will not feature PSP games. The Xperia Play will also be fully compatible with the newly announced Playstation Suite.

Furthermore, four major mobile phone providers (Vodafone,O2, T-mobile and Orange)  have now confirmed that they will be providing the Xperia Play, which according to a recent post by technology blog Pocket Lint, could be happening as soon as April 2011.

It is an exciting prospect and we at Mini Gamers are interested to see how the technology develops over the coming months. The move towards Mobile Gaming is growing more and more, and  this device is likely to be very popular when it launches.

So,what do you think? Will you be ordering your own Xperia Play in April?