

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.