Italy Ignores PS3 Release Date, Starts Selling Early
"It fell off the back of a truck" ain't gonna work this time. Italian retailers began selling PS3s as far as two whole days before the official launch date this Friday. The situation emerged after a smaller retail chain, Darty, advertised an early sale beginning today - prompting their larger competitor, Media World, to cancel their March 23rd midnight launch event and announce a similarly early sale beginning 9am this morning.
Even GameStop stated that while it goes against company policy to break street dates, they may be forced to do just that if their rivals break rank and make a run for it. Specialty or independent retailers are up the proverbial, if Italian, creek - while mainstream retailers get their inventory early, smaller stores may not receive their stock until Friday morning. So they'll follow the rules, willingly or not, and be shafted in return by the unethical arms race to get PS3s to Italians before the rest of Europe.
Sony, as you can probably imagine, was less than pleased:
"Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is deeply disappointed by the unilateral decision of some Italian retail chains to commence the sale of PlayStation 3 to consumers before this official launch date."
"Such decisions run counter to our policy of consumer protection which seeks to ensure that all of our consumers have an equal opportunity to purchase PlayStation 3."
Naturally, Sony may not leave it at that. The company well-known for bullying anyone and anything that gets in its way says it shall "carefully consider all available options in relation to retailers who have commenced sale of PlayStation 3 prior to 23rd March 2007." Yikes.
Italian retailers break street date for PlayStation 3 [GamesIndustry.biz]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 21 March 2007
Other stuff like this: europe, italy, march 23, ps3, scee, sony
