Sony has bad news for the owners of Xperia Play gaming smartphone.

The company has revealed that this model would not get the Google Android ICS update.

Sony said that they could not deliver a stable gaming performance on the ICS platform and as a result, gamers would have to stick with Gingerbread build.

Sony had this to say:

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.

The company added:

Our priority has and always will be, to provide the best possible user experience on Xperia smartphones. 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.