Owing to what Sony Mobile claims are technical issues, the firm has confirmed it won't offer Xperia Play owners an upgrade to Android 4.0, better known as Ice Cream Sandwich.

The revelation was made on Sony's Xperia Blog, with the company stating the hardware simply isn't up to the task.

Testing times

"After extensive in house testing with our developer teams and working with our partners, we have concluded that a consistent and stable experience, particularly with gaming, cannot be guaranteed for this smartphone on Ice Cream Sandwich," detailed Sony.

"Therefore, we will not make the Android 4.0 upgrade available for Xperia Play."

Sony had originally made ICS available to Xperia Play developers back in March, albeit in beta form.

However, the company claimed the findings garnered from those installing the update on their handset only confirmed the results Sony had experienced during its own tests.

Out of the game

"This decision was also verified when we received similar feedback from the developer community," the blog entry continued.

"Both experienced developers and advanced users, along with game content providers following our ICS beta ROM2 for unlocked Xperia Play smartphones."

Just when this leaves Xperia Play longterm is unclear. The handset appears to have been something of an experiment for the OEM, launched before Sony took charge of Sony Ericsson wholesale.

There's been no word on the launch of an Xperia Play 2, though supposed leaked shots of a Sony-branded sequel did hit portions of the web back in February.

Owners of one of the firm's new Xperia NXT handsets - Xperia S, Xperia P and Xperia U – will be pleased to hear ICS will be heading their way from late June onwards, with Xperia arc S, Xperia ray and Xperia neo V having received the update in April.

Xperia arc, Xperia neo, Xperia mini, Xperia mini pro, Xperia pro and Xperia active handsets will also be rewarded with ICS from the end of May.

[source: Sony]