PlayStation Phone rumours trashed

The rumours have been going around the internets like a wildfire for the last 24 hours and, in an effort to bring you only the solid facts, we've stayed out of all this 'PlayStation Phone' business - until now!

Speculation that Sony was developing a PlayStation Phone first arose when a story was published in The Economic Times of India earlier this week, which quoted Jim Ryan, SCEE co-chief operating officer, as saying:

"The PlayStation is a proven success and so is Sony Ericsson...convergence with the two arms working together is definitely plausible. It is hugely intellectually seductive to have a console oriented phone."

Ryan was later quoted as saying that the device would have primarily been designed as a games machine, with phone functionality added-on as an extra. Personally, I don't think such an idea would take off - it certainly didn't work very well for the N-Gage.

Not that it matters anyway, Sony has now confirmed to Next-Gen.biz that Jim Ryan was misquoted and there were never any plans to develop such a device at all. The comment puts an end to the speculation on fansites and rumour-mills.

Ah well. If Sony had come up with a PlayStation Phone, would you have bought it? What features would you have been looking for? Me, I don't care what it might have had feature-wise as long as it didn't use UMD discs. Let us know what you think in the forums.