PocketGamer cornered Peter Ahnegard, Partner Manager Games and Graphics at Sony Ericsson, at the Leipzig Games Convention and got his perspective on mobile games, while trying to get him to let slip some info about a Playstation Phone. Ahnegard gave an answer I’ve heard before, which talks about extending brands and “living up to the values” of the brands, but comes down to Sony Ericsson thinking it can make a good musicphone and a good cameraphone, but not yet a good games phone. Which is fair enough, it’s always better to wait until you’ve got something right before you hook a successful brand to it. Then his choice of words caused some excitement:
“Ahnegard: Up until today we haven’t felt we could launch a PlayStation phone because it wouldn’t be recognised as a true continuation of that brand of products.
Pocketgamer: Up until today? So does that mean we can look forward to a PlayStation branded handset soon, say before Christmas?
Ahnegard: It’s obviously something that we’re looking at but right now I can’t really comment. Before Christmas, certainly… but exactly which Christmas I can’t confirm!”
From the sound of it (and from the tone of some of his other answers) I think that Sony Ericsson is working on a Playstation Phone, but is a long way from getting it working and in stores. The form factor is obviously more difficult, but there is a scope for ongoing revenue through game sales if it’s done right.

Ahnegard said that games were considered one of the main features of a phone, but he is the games manager… Some interesting quotes:
—“We also see that embedded games have an important role to play and this is something we’re doing a lot of work into: embedding titles that really show off the capabilities of the handsets.”
—“That said, though, we’re definitely at a stage where content is having an effect on the form factor. Whilst it used to be more the case of creating the forms and then at the end look for content to fit within them, right now content and form factor are developed in tandem and interact with one another.