"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," Sony said in a Friday blog post. "Therefore, we will not make the Android 4.0 upgrade available for Xperia Play."
Sony said its decision was "verified" when developers, testers, and game content providers had the same feedback after using the ICS beta ROM for unlocked Xperia Play smartphones.
"Our priority has and always will be, to provide the best possible user experience on Xperia smartphones," Sony continued. "In this instance the ICS upgrade would have compromised stability, where we look to ensure a quality gaming experience with games optimized and developed for Xperia Play."
The news comes shortly after Sony published a blog post in which it outlined a list of reasons existing phone owners may not want to jump up to the sleek new interface of Ice Cream Sandwich.
The company is not totally avoiding ICS upgrades, however. The Xperia arc S, Xperia ray and Xperia neo V got Android 4.0.3 last month, and will soon be upgraded to Android 4.0.4. Other Xperia devices are also on track to get Android 4.0.4.
"The first smartphone to be upgraded will be Xperia S, starting from the end of June," Sonys said. "Then Xperia P will follow, whilst Xperia U will receive it a little later in Q3."
The Xperia arc, Xperia neo, Xperia mini, Xperia mini pro, Xperia pro, Xperia activem and Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman will also start receiving their updates next week.
