I got my Xperia Play on launch day and I remember it cost around £500, so I opted for a 2 year plan instead. Now it's extremely cheap and it's totally worth it.

I use it at the very least an hour a day for gaming. You can pretty much download any nes/gba/gbc/megadrive etc game and use a good emulator (I think it's legal as long as you have a copy of the game). I can't describe how awesome it is to play pokemon on the go, for like a minute or so waiting in a queue. I keep hearing childen telling their parents "look! he's playing pokemon". Though I still own an nes, I would never bother playing Super Mario Bros 3, but it's so much easier on xperia and the controls are really great.

I've tried a couple of games developed specifically for xperia, but it's not that fun to play them on the go. Backstab, Sacred, Spiderman and a few other are great, but I'd still much rather play Mario when waiting for the bus. One could argue that I could simply buy a ds/gba, but I don't like carrying any other devices apart from my phone.

So in my opinion, since you're a gamer you should give it a try (especially if a friend own it and has emulators installed) and then decide.

I have one myself. I quite like it a lot. Though it took some time to get used to those analogue pads while I was playing dead space. Though I wish Ericsson future proofed the phone a bit. Like it's pretty smooth, but when that garbage collector goes, the phone stalls. Would have been nice if it came with a dual core instead. But as is, it's still great. Games run even better. Like Dead Space was so smooth.

Play.com had a special offer yesterday. It was £170 (which includes a Free £10 Airtime Voucher). Now it's back to £190. Last week it was £160 if memory serves me right.

http://www.play.com/Search.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=xperia

You might find an even better deal elsewhere though.

If you can get one cheap, go for it. Otherwise I don't reccommend it, there are much better android smartphones such as Galaxy S2 or Galaxy Nexus.

Play.com has good deals on Mondays. I got Child of Eden Special Edition (inluding a great t-shirt) for £11 3 weeks ago. It can definitely run emulators, as I use them all the time and (all) the games (that I played) run fine (just like on the actual consoles). I downloaded a ps1 emulator, but it  never worked and I couldn't be bothered (though I'm sure you can easily find a good one), since most ps1 games aren't for the go for me. You can either use the onscreen buttons or the pad. The pad works perfectly though, so I only use that all the time. This alone is a reason to purchase it for me (if anything happens to my current one, I won't be able to resist buying a new one just for the pad). 

Here's a youtube video that shows how it works. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E15XgqB-71c&noredirect=1

Same here. I only order games I'm not in a hurry to play.

I'm planning on getting one as it is becoming quite cheap now, and I really wan't to play emulators on the go. Borrowed one from a friend to try out and the controls are GREAT! Runs everything without a problem from C64 and NES up to PS1 and N64.

However if you don't want to play emulators but are more focused on newer games/android market games I would recommend getting a newer, more high-end phone. It is quite a good smartphone and since you've never had one before I think you'll be happy with it overall, but this is a fast moving industry and there are newer phones that are a lot better in many ways. Though they come at a greater price of course.

get a flip phone and a PSP like me

Horrible horrible built quality. Horrible Horrible dim screen. Just get an android phone with a keyboard, if you hate tapping on virtual buttons, and start emulating.

If you are a gamer, there is no substitute for the control pad. If you aren't then there is no reason to have it. The Play is very good at what it does. It isn't good at keeping up with the latest greatest spec. But then again, anything you buy now won't be the latest greatest in 6 months anyway.

Remember though that it is an android phone with a control pad, not a hand held console. But if you live a life where you can carry around both a phone and an psp with you wherever you go, cheers to ya. If you want the best hardware right now, then wait a month for the new better hardware to come out and then wait another month for the next version. If you want to play touch screen games with your thumbs all over the action, get an iPhone.