Sony Ericsson banks on 'hundreds and hundreds' of games this year for Xperia Play

ORLANDO, Fla.--Sony Ericsson expects there to be "hundreds and hundreds" of games optimized for its Xperia Play smartphone this year, a Sony Ericsson executive said. The firm hopes that this will foster the convergence of mobile and gaming and stoke sales.

There are currently more than 50 titles in Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android Market optimized for the Xperia Play, but Dominic Neil-Dwyer, Sony Ericsson's head of market development, said the company expects that number to dramatically increase throughout the year, though he declined to give a precise timeline for the growth. Those games are separate from the titles that Sony will put into its PlayStation Suite for Android devices later this year.

Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) will launch the Xperia Play "soon," Neil-Dwyer said, though he declined to discuss pricing or specific availability. The handset maker is working with Unity Technologies and Havok as middleware partners to speed up the development of 3D games for Android. Neil-Dwyer said that the company is also going to announce partnerships soon with other middleware partners. 

The Xperia Play will be the first smartphone that meets the standards of Sony's PlayStation Certified license program for hardware manufacturers. That certification promises software development support and logo licensing to guarantee quality gameplay experiences across the Android device ecosystem. Neil-Dwyer said that because of Sony Ericsson's close relationship with parent company, Sony, it was taking the lead in mobile gaming and was not too concerned that other Android licensees would move quickly to copy its foray into mobile gaming.

"If others want to join, then we welcome them," he said in an interview with FierceWireless. "You'd have a bigger installed base for the community. Our aim is to take a leadership position" He said Sony Ericsson is working to generate buzz with early adopters and gaming enthusiasts and has been encouraged by the feedback it has received so far.

The Xperia Play runs Android 2.3, or Gingerbread, and features a 4-inch screen, slide-out gaming controls with a directional pad and Sony PlayStation buttons, a 1 GHz processor, CDMA and EVDO support as well as UMTS and HSPA, and memory card support for up to 32 GB.  

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