Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY Delayed By Two More Carriers in UK

In a statement today, Sony Ericsson confirmed that due to shipping issues, the upcoming PlayStation Phone aka Sony Xperia PLAY will be missing tomorrow’s launch date for Vodafone and Three in the United Kingdom and won’t be available until next week at the earliest.

This news comes on the heels of a previous delay with UK carrier, O2, that had to push back the Xperia PLAY’s launch date because of “software issues.” The reasons for this new delay are a little less drastic, but they definitely are cause for concern, especially for those who pre-ordered the device.

Here is Sony Ericsson’s statement on the matter via SlashGear:

We can confirm that the Xperia™ PLAY handsets are still planned to launch in the UK for 1st April, as originally communicated. However, as of today, we have experienced a freight issue that may impact the number of Xperia™ PLAYs arriving at some retail outlets. This said, consumers can purchase Xperia™ PLAY as of April 1st at a number of stores across the UK.

And, from Vodafone:

Sony Ericsson has advised us that it will not be able to supply the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and Arc devices to meet their original launch date of 1 April. Unfortunately, this means there will be a small delay before pre-order customers receive their orders and the device is made available for sale in our shops.

We’re working closely with Sony Ericsson to ensure our customers’ phones are delivered as soon as possible and we will contact people directly with specific timescales when we know more.

We appreciate this is disappointing and are doing our very best to resolve this as quickly as possible.

This leaves Orange as the only carrier that will have the Xperia PLAY on tomorrow’s launch day.

Sony’s device is expected to hit both AT&T and Verizon here in the United States in the upcoming weeks and those wanting to get their hands on the Xperia PLAY might be a little worried after seeing this.

Keep those fingers crossed.