Nvidia brings Playstation games to Android

CHIP DESIGNER Nvidia has announced that Sony's Playstation Suite will be coming to Android phones and tablets using its Tegra chip.

Sony's Playstation Suite is the software that allows operating systems to play Playstation games. While Nvidia didn't announce which Tegra devices will achieve Playstation certification, it did reveal a number of PSOne games will appear later this year, such as Wild Arms and Syphon Filter. Nvidia added that eventually Playstation 2 games will tip up on Android.

Nvidia's decision to support the Playstation Suite comes hot on the heels of Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play, the so-called Playstation Phone, which was the first device to attain Playstation certification.

Although Nvidia had a slow start with its Tegra chip, a host of smartphones and tablets that use the Tegra 2 chip were revealed at CES and Mobile World Congress (MWC) earlier this year. Nvidia's support of the Playstation Suite might help the firm flog its chips to more hardware vendors as they start to build gaming oriented phones and tablets.

Nvidia has pulled out all the stops with Tegra and last month at MWC showed off Project Kal-el, its next generation quad core Tegra chip. The firm likes to promote the gaming performance of its Tegra chips, seeing it as a major selling point.

What isn't known at this point is whether existing Tegra 2 devices such as LG's Optimus 2X and Motorola's Xoom will end up getting retrospective Playstation certification. However what is clear is that Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play won't be the only device that will be able to play Playstation games. µ