We’ve suffered the launch of many consoles in the last year or so. With the Xbox 360 and the Wii launches experiencing trouble and the US launch of the PS3 a fairly disturbing affair, it’s fair to say not all was going to go smoothly with the European launch. However, it isn’t the customers suffering this time round, it’s Sony.

Gamers in Italy have been fortunate enough to get their hands on the shiny new PS3 console two days in advance of the official March 23rd official launch date as specified by Sony. The small-scale retail chain Darty began selling the console at 7pm on Wednesday night, after having taken out advertisements in Italian national newspapers.

The early opening sparked a small chain reaction, with the store Media World announcing a 9am launch on Wednesday morning. GameStop, another popular retail chain stated that its policy was not to break street dates, but may consider if rival stores began early selling.

Davide Sher of Trade Interactive Multimedia (TIM) magazine spoke to GamesIndustry.biz about the early release stating that,

“The mainstream consumer electronics retailers get their PS3 stock early, so they can start selling early, but many specialist retailers don’t have any units yet and won’t receive any until Friday morning. This puts them at a real disadvantage.”

This is interesting news, considering Australian specialised retailers received consoles early this morning, Thursday 22nd, preparing for midnight launches as did all major retail chains.

In response to the early selling, Sony spokesman stated that,

“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.”

Sony will also “carefully consider all available options in relation to retailers who have commenced sale of PlayStation 3 prior to 23rd March 2007″.

There are no other reports of retailers breaking the street date.