There is no word as yet on when Sony's PlayStation Network will be back online. Surprisingly, rumor mills too are silent about Sony's next move. There is talk however that fans experiencing withdrawal symptoms could look at alternatives. That means a hardware sale windfall for Xbox and Wii.

There has also been a counter argument. NPD Group's data showed Sony's PlayStation hardware sales did not witness much of a slack lately, but instead saw a 13 percent rise in April.

But that is not as comforting as news about PSN restoration, which sadly is not coming.

Given that the biggest jolt suffered by gamers is not about to ease, how much of a substitute is Sony Ericsson's PlayStation-certified Xperia Play smartphone? Probably not much to write home about. However, there are some saving graces. Sony has confirmed that the security breach that brought down PlayStation Network doesn't affect the Xperia Play.

The Vancouver Sun reported this, citing a Reuters report. A Sony Ericsson spokesman told the agency that Xperia Play, which runs on the Android 2.3 operating system, is out of danger of the PSN security breach.

It was in February this year that Sony Ericsson announced the launch of its Xperia Play, which combines a PlayStation-quality gaming experience with the latest Android smartphone technology.

Xperia PLAY is a 4 touchscreen slider, with the slider revealing PlayStation-style controls and buttons similar to Sony Computer Entertainment's PSP Go. It's powered by Qualcomm's 1 GHz
Snapdragon processor with the embedded Adreno GPU capable of 60fps playback 3D gaming. It also features 400MB RAM, support for up to 32GB MicroSD storage, a 5.1 megapixel flash camera, aGPS, Bluetooth 2.0, and 802.11 Wi-Fi with hotspot functionality.

There have been reports these days that Xperia Play games have not been selling well probably because of bad publicity owing to PSN outage.

Sony Electronics Sony Smartphone