There were rumours flying around that Sony would soon be releasing Ice Cream Sandwich for their Xperia Play device, sadly those rumours and dreams have been ripped from the fingers of eagerly awaiting users.
They released a beta update for testing purposes to see if the Xperia Play could handle the new ICS platform, but ICS demands our system have more available resources than previous Gingerbread builds. Sadly the Xperia Play did not make the cut. Sony says: “a consistent and stable experience, particularly with gaming, cannot be guaranteed, thus they will not be making 4.0 officially available.”
They went on to say:
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.
Not the news anyone wanted to hear, but what’s done is done. This doesn’t mean all hope is lost though, if you’re handy with rooting and rom flashing, you’ll be able to take advantage of ported roms for sure in the future.
In spite of this bad news, do you think Sony will rectify the decision and follow up on the Xperia Play with a next generation of gaming device? I’m thinking they may incorporate the new PSP Vita in the development stages, but time will speak for itself.
