This is NOT a PlayStation phone

When I’m not blogging for GotGame, I’m making a living by writing headlines. I try to have fun with them, but I also scrutinize them because they can mislead or overstate, even when you have the best intentions.

That was the case when Kotaku posted an entry titled “This Might Just Be the PlayStation Phone.” Although this headline isn’t innaccurate at face value, it implies something that is wholly uncertain. It might be a PlayStation phone. Or it might not be. At all.

Read up on the details of F305 at the Unofficial Sony Ericcson Phone blog here, and then decide for yourself.

This phone has most of the features you’d expect: Bluetooth, MP3 player, EDGE support, expandable memory. And then there are the gaming features — mainly, the preloaded bowling, fishing and jockey games that use the phone’s motion sensitivity. Also on the phone are the familiar X and O buttons, positioned on the opposite end of a directional keypad.

So it looks like something that might be more interesting than an N-Gage. But I can’t imagine that Sony or anyone else could even hint that this could be a PlayStation phone.

A PlayStation phone wouldn’t look like this. A “PSPhone” would have major first-party titles and third-party support from game developers. It wouldn’t boast a 2-inch display with a 176 x 220 reslution, either. Gamers associate the PlayStation brand with high-end technical specs and a heavy price tag. The F305 has neither.

Given the success of the iPhone, Curve and Instinct, releasing a value-priced, gaming-focused handset might not be a bad idea. Marketing it squarely at the mobile gaming market wouldn’t be bad, either. But when someone labels it as a “PlayStation phone,” the expectations change, in a very disappointing way. If consumers and the media perceive it as something it clearly is not, then this phone is a lost cause.