No Android 4.0 update for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

There are signs that the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play ‘PlayStation Phone' may not be upgrading to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS).

The official Sony Mobile Blog published a list of Sony Ericsson Xperia handsets that will have the new version of Android rolled out to them soon. The Xperia Play isn't on the list.

As Pocket Gamer points out, there are other Xperia models with very similar spec line-ups which are being upgraded, so it's possible the specifics of the Xperia Play's gamepad controller are some kind of obstacle here.

On top of this, Sony Mobile has previously rolled out a beta Android ICS ROM for Xperia Play owners to experiment with and there are some reports about games crashing whilst using it.

If ICS does cause such problems with the Xperia Play's key gaming function it's little wonder Sony has pulled the plug on it.

It's not the first time Sony has reported problems with ICS, we previously heard it would be offering the upgrades for old and new Xperia phones as an opt-in scenario and didn't want to do an active rollout due to stability concerns with the platform.

There is, of course, the possibility that some forgetful soul left the Xperia Play off the list by mistake, but for now we have to take things as they are and it looks very much like the Xperia Play is being denied the update due to stability issues.

We'll keep an eye on things and report back if the situation changes.