According to a report from French site Nowhereelse.fr, mobile handset maker Sony Ericsson is gearing up to make a PlayStation-centric announcement on December 9. An invite allegedly sent out to local media in the region depicts an array of all-too familiar DualShock controller buttons conspicuously joined by a phone icon. Not exactly subtle.

Sony Ericsson France CEO Pierre Perron will be in attendance, according to the invite.

Following a lengthy stretch of silence, spy shots of the long-rumored PSP-esque phone hit the net last month. Backed by a 1GHz-rated Qualcomm MSM8655 CPU and 512MB of RAM, it will reportedly run Google’s mobile OS Gingerbread — now publicly known as Android 2.3. It’s still unclear if SCE has any involvement with the rumored device.

Follow this author on Twitter.

Read more: Is This The PlayStation Phone?,  Sony Quells PSP Phone Rumors, Says No Plans To Launch New Mobile Device This Year,  Clip: PlayStation Phone In The Flesh,  Sony Ericsson Makes Xperia Play Official In Super Bowl Commercial, Launch Event Commences February 13,  Sony On New PSP Product: ‘When The Timing Is Right’