Sony is making a move for the majors! Sony Ericsson is partnering with Major league Gaming to showcase Xperia PLAY. This is an interesting move by Sony and what looks like a direct attack against Windows phone 7 and their Xbox live integration. Trying to capture the MLG is huge because they have a big influence on the Xbox Live community.

Take a look at the full Press Release below:

SAN FRANCISCO, March 2, 2011: Sony Ericsson and Major League Gaming (MLG), the world’s largest professional video game league and provider of cross platform online videogame competition, today announced a partnership making Xperia PLAY the official mobile handset of Major League Gaming.

“Sony Ericsson is redefining mobile gaming with Xperia PLAY. It’s designed to give you everything you need from a fully featured smartphone and the one thing you want–the ultimate mobile gaming experience,” said Peter Farmer, Head of Marketing for North America, Sony Ericsson. “We know that Major League Gaming’s community of gamers will put that gaming experience to the ultimate test and we’re looking forward to connecting with this highly engaged global community.”

MLG is the premier property for video gaming competition and is the exclusive sanctioning body for both competitive professional and amateur gaming competition. It operates a rapidly growing digital platform with a community of approximately 8 million, as well as the multi-city Pro-Circuit tour. The 8th Season of the Pro Circuit will include competitions in six major U.S. cities and will be streamed live online. With more than $1 million in prizes and player stipends, this will be the largest season in MLG history.

In addition to the PlayStation content from the PlayStation® suite framework there will be more than 50 games from various Android publishers optimized for Xperia PLAY available at launch. Users will have a best-in-class gaming experience with many popular titles, including Asphalt Adrenaline 6, Bruce Lee, Star Battalion, The Sims 3 and Tetris . Other leading franchises available at launch include, Guitar Hero, Assassin’s Creed, and Splinter Cell. A pre-loaded application will enable users to easily discover and download titles that have been optimized for game play on the Xperia PLAY, access recently played games and see information about the games they have downloaded.

About Major League Gaming

Founded in 2002, Major League Gaming (MLG) is the dominant media property exclusively targeting the approximately 40 million consumers in North America who have a passion for playing video games as a competitive social activity. The company exclusively represents the best professional gamers and gives millions of aspiring gamers around the world an opportunity to compete, improve their skills, and socialize through our thriving online competitive community and live Pro Circuit competitions. For more information: www.majorleaguegaming.com.

About Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson celebrates its 10th year as a joint venture between Sony Corporation and Ericsson in October, 2011. Over the years the company has brought together the best communication technologies with superior entertainment user experiences to create its Xperia line of the most entertaining smartphones in the mobile handset industry. With its global corporate functions in London, Sony Ericsson has sales and marketing operations in all major regions of the world, as well as manufacturing in China, and product development sites in China, Japan, Sweden and Silicon Valley, California. For more information, please visit: www.sonyericsson.com/press.

Does this excite you? Was it the news you were waiting to hear? Now if we can only get Sony Ericsson to every carrier in the U.S and make them more popular, maybe this will benefit everyone. If you could get your hands on either one, which would you rather use: a Windows Phone 7 Xbox live integrated device or a Sony Ericsson Xperia XPlay device? We know some people have preferences and would like to hear your comments in the boxes below.

Source: Major League Gaming

• Windows Mobile 6.5.3 Professional.
• Tri-band HSPA (850/900/1200) and quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900)
• Size: 117x60x12.45mm
• Weight: 130 grams.
• 2.4-inch touchscreen at 240×320 (QVGA)
• 3.2MP camera with 4x digital zoom.
• Bluetooth with A2DP
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• aGPS
• MicroUSB for sync and charge.
• WiFi
• 4GB MicroSD card (supports up to 16GB)
• SPB Mobile Shell, Traveler and Weather are all built in.
• Talk time rate at up to 10 hours/standby time at 450 hours on EDGE.

Full press release is here.