A rare case of non-hilarious date mix-ups

Sony officially christened its motion controller Move at E3 2010, simultaneously announcing release dates for North America, Europe and Japan.

PlayStation(R)Move Motion Controller to Hit Worldwide Market Starting This September

TOKYO, June 15 -- Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) today announced that it will release PlayStation®Move motion controller for the PlayStation®3 (PS3™) system on September 15, 2010 in Europe/PAL territories and in Asian countries/regions at a recommended retail price (RRP) of euro 39.99. It will also become available in North America on September 19 at a RRP of $49.99 and in Japan on October 21 at a RRP of 3,980 yen (including tax).

So that's September 15th in Europe and September 19th in North America, right? That's the official party line from Sony, and is mirrored on its official websites. Try a retailer however and you get a different story.

The official UK PlayStation site puts Move launching on September 15th, but major European retailers Amazon, Play.com, Gamestation and Game all have the peripheral down for a launch on Friday September 17th. Of all the high street and online retailers we checked, not one has September 15th listed as the Move's release date.

It's a similarly confusing situation Stateside. Although the official press release states the launch date as September 19th, major retailer Gamestop lists the peripheral as September 17th, with Amazon.com following suit.

Clear as Day

It seems Sony classes Europe as two separate territories: mainland Europe and the UK. Here are the final dates:

United States: September 19th.
Mainland Europe: September 15th.
United Kingdom: September 17th.

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