It seems that the Italians have jumped the gun and fans have been able to pick up their PS3s as of this morning.

The cause was a small chain, Darty, placing ads in national newspapers earlier this week saying that gamers would be able to buy their PS3s from 7pm on Wednesday (today).

This led to a vicious circle when rival chain Media World changed their plans for a midnight 23 launch to begin sales at 9am Wednesday, which did indeed happen (see photo).

The one-upmanship continued when another chain, GameShop, said it may be forced to revise its policy of never breaking street dates.

Davide Sher of Trade Interactive Multimedia (TIM) magazine, a specialist publication for Italian retailers said, "It's a strange situation. This is the first time retailers have broken street dates by 2 days".

The breaking of the street date puts pressure on the smaller independent shops as the chains get their allocations way before them.

A Sony spokesperson commented, "Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is deeply disappointed by the unilateral decision of some Italian retail chains to commence the sale of PS3 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 PS3."

Sony also warned that it plans to "carefully consider all available options in relation to retailers who have commenced sale of PlayStation 3 prior to 23rd March 2007".