Sony Xperia Play 'PlayStation Phone'

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, known as the PlayStation phone, will make its debut in the U.S. on May 26 for $199.99 with a two-year Verizon contract, the carrier announced Tuesday.

Users can start pre-ordering the Android-based smartphone on May 19 at verizonwireless.com; it will hit stores six days later.

The device, which will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread, slides up to reveal PlayStation gaming controls. It will come pre-loaded with seven game titles, including "Madden NFL 11," "Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior," "Asphalt 6: Adrenaline," "The Sims 3," "Star Battalion," "Crash Bandicoot," and "Tetris." There will also be more than 50 game titles available for download at launch via V Cast Apps.

The Xperia Play features a 4-inch multi-touch screen, 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, and VGA front-facing camera for video chat. Gaming controls include 4-way directional buttons and AB keys for smartphone navigation as well as for multi-key gaming commands.

It is powered by a Snapdragon, 1-GHz CPU and the Adreno 205 graphical processor, optimized for advanced gaming and allowing 60 frames per second play-back. It comes with 8GB of available space, which can be increased to 32GB. The Xperia Play supports Adobe Flash Player and its mobile hotspot capability can share a 3G connection with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices.

The Xperia Play launched in Europe and Asia on April 1.

Sony's PlayStation network, however, has taken a beating in the press lately after a sophisticated hack took down the PSN for almost a month. The PSN went offline on April 20, with Sony Online Entertainment following several days later. Some services started coming back online on Sunday, but issues remain.