The game-themed mobile phone Xperia Play from Sony was finally launched just a couple of months ago here in the US via Verizon Wireless. However it looks like Verizon wants to get more units of the "Playstation Phone" sold. This week the company reduced the price of the Xperia Play on its web site to just $99.99 with a two year contract. The phone was originally sold for $199.99 when it launched on May 26. The $99.99 price tag is an online exclusive but it looks like Verizon has also cut the regular price of the phone to $149.99 in stores.
The Xperia Play has gotten somewhat mixed reviews so far, praising the fact that it has the current 2.3 version of the Android operating system along with a fast processor and a specially built gamepad that has some Playstation-like features. One of the main criticisms of the phone has been the lack of exclusive games for the Xperia Play. During E3 2011 last June the company announced that the phone will be getting more exclusive games. The biggest one will be the mobile version of Minecraft, the hit PC sandbox game. While it will eventually be released for other Android-based smartphones, the Xperia Play will be the first phone that will have Minecraft available to play. It"s currently scheduled for release sometime this fall.
In a recent interview with IGN, Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson gave more info on the mobile version of the game. He stated, "Since you"ll have your level with you wherever you go, you might want to show it off to people you meet, or even invite them to help you build when you run into someone on the subway, so we"re probably going to explore these aspects of the game more with the mobile version." The price for the mobile version will be $6.99.