The Xperia Play (PlayStation Phone) isno longer a secret, its been subjected to teardowns and numerous overviews. We believe Sony Ericsson is due to unveil its gaming-centric smartphone at Mobile World Congress in February, but it almost certainly will launch without the ability to play PlayStation-compatible games. The Xperia Play will be the first Android smartphone to ship with a dedicated gaming joypad, in every overview video we have watched, we never got the chance to see how Sony’s PlayStation experience would fit into it....

When Sony Ericssonofficially unveiledits Xperia Play handset, the first Android handset to feature full gaming controls, Sony’s Kazuo Hiraiteased us with the announcementthat it would launch with one “classic” PlayStation One title. PocketGamerreveals that the PSOne title will be the hugely popular game Crash Bandicoot, one of the best-selling games on the PlayStation platform throughout the years. Sony Ericsson intends to offer a number of other PlayStation classic games for the Xperia Play, making them available via the Android Market until Sony’s PlayStation Store launches....

Just when you couldn’t imagine it getting any worse for Sony, a new wave of attacks have been levelled on the Sony Music Japan website, exposing databases using SQL injection techniques. NakedSecurity reportsthat the highlighted databases do not contain sensitive information, with no names, passwords or personally identifiable information thought to have been exposed in the attacks. However, the attackers, who mock Sony with a note stating “This isn’t a 1337 h4x0r, we just want to embarass Sony some more”, do note that two other databases on the site are vulnerable but it is not known whether they contain sensitive information....

Sony is looking to buy out Ericsson’s share of its mobile phone business, ending a partnership established in 2001, reports Daisuke Wakabayashi of theWall Street Journal. The deal would give Sony complete control of the Sony Ericsson brand and allow it to more fully integrate its mobile phone business with the rest of its technology products. Sony wants to buy out the 50% of the joint venture owned by Ericsson in a deal that is nearing its close, sources have said....

Subscription movie channel Starz has instructed Netflix to stop streaming Sony movies this week while it irons out contractual issues with the studio,reports Deadline. Neftlix streams a large selection of movies from the channel under the ‘StarzPlay’ imprint. This has included content from many of the major studios including Sony. Some of the movies that Netflix has been instructed to stop streaming for the time being include The Social Network, Salt and Easy A....