It’s no secret that iPhone and iPod Touch owners like to play games. On average, iPhone and Touch owners have 10 games on their devices.

How will the portable gaming giants respond?

Over the weekend, Japan’s Nikkei Business Daily reported that Sony planned to develop a new product that combined the functions of its portable game player, the P.S.P., and Sony Ericsson’s mobile phones. The Nikkei said the move was an effort to better compete with the iPhone and iPod Touch, which have become popular platforms for games among their owners.

On Monday, a spokesman for Sony Ericsson, Sony’s phone-making joint venture, dismissed the report as “purely speculative,” and said the company did not comment on rumors, speculation or future product announcements.

The Nikkei’s report follows the release of the third-generation iPhone and the latest upgrade to its mobile operating system, which are appealing to game developers in particular. The newest software enables in-application purchases, which could easily be applied to unlocking new weaponry or additional gaming levels. In addition, many game developers have expressed excitement over the new graphics capabilities of the iPhone 3GS, which allows for better 3-D graphics.

Analysts agree that traditional gamers aren’t likely to give up their big-name titles and D-Pads for a cellphone, but the wildfire successes of Apple’s App Store is having an effect on the gaming industry. In October, Sony plans to release a new version of its flagship portable gaming device called the PSPGo that won’t use cartridges at all; rather it will deliver software directly to the device — just like an iPhone.

In May, Reggie Fils-Aime, president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, told my colleague Matt Richtel that the company did not have plans to add phone functionality to the Nintendo DS or any of its hand-held game devices.

Neil Young, a veteran of the gaming industry and founder of ngmoco, a publishing company that creates titles solely for the iPhone, thinks the iPhone one-ups the hand-held as a gaming platform.

“For the most part we sort of feel like the iPhone and the iPod Touch have all the necessary pieces to be a killer gaming platform — a unique blend of inherent device capability coupled with usability,” Mr. Young said.

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