OnLive update plays nice with Xperia Play game pad

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play seems tailor made for online streaming service OnLive: it’s small, portable, with a wide screen and – most importantly – a built-in PlayStation-style game pad. These facts may have perturbed owners who tried out OnLive’s new Android app, since it defaulted to its touchscreen interface even on the specialized hardware. That minor oversight has been fixed, as PocketGamer reports that the Android app has been updated to support the buttons on the Xperia Play’s slide-out keyboard.

Play owners, simply check the Android Market for the updated OnLive app. Unfortunately it appears that root users are being left out of the party, possibly due to a failure to identify – the Movies section of the Android Market operates on a similar basis. The Xperia Play isn’t particularly powerful but in OnLive’s case that doesn’t matter. All the graphics and the bulk of the input and output for the available PC games is handled by OnLive’s remote servers, allowing for some truly fantastic graphics and gameplay that are beyond even the rapidly expanding hardware of Android phones and tablets.

Despite being more than a year old and probably due for a hardware refresh, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play seems to be aging gracefully. Just a few weeks ago Sony announced that more than 200 games that take advantage of the built-in game pad. And if you’re looking for a phone that plays nice with OnLive, you won’t have to spend much money to get it: the phone is just $49.999 at Verizon at the moment, and the HSPA+ version is the same price on AT&T. Rumors recently began of a forthcoming LTE version, but whether or not it would come with upgraded specifications has yet to be seen.

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