Sony confirms that the Xperia Play will not receive the Android 4.0 update

Remember yesterday we reported on the possibility of the Sony Xperia Play being left out of the Android 4.0 fun? As it turns out, the folks at Xperia Gamer were spot on with their speculation as Sony has since come forward with an official statement of their own regarding Android 4.0 updates for the Xperia devices. According to the company, the confirmed list of 2011 devices that will receive the Android 4.0 update includes the Xperia arc, Xperia neo, Xperia mini, Xperia mini pro, Xperia pro, Xperia active and Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman. The update is expected to roll out starting from next week. Regarding the Xperia Play:

In regards to Xperia PLAY, 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 – therefore, we will not make the Android 4.0 upgrade available for Xperia PLAY.

This decision was also verified when we received similar feedback from the developer community; both experienced developers and advanced users, along with game content providers following our ICS beta ROM for unlocked Xperia PLAY smartphones.

As some of you guys might recall, Sony issued a beta build of Android 4.0 for the Xperia Play a while back. Based on the reports of those who gave the beta a spin, there were some stability issues with the games and with the Xperia Play primarily being a gaming device, safe to say that this did not look good. Either way if Android 4.0 for your Xperia Play is what you really want, it looks like you will have to turn to unofficial channels.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Sony, xperia play