As a games retailer myself, nothing makes my blood boil more than street date breakers, so you can imagine my combined shock and disbelief at the news that UK catalogue chain Argos had started selling copies of Microsoft's flagship title, Halo 3 a whole WEEK prior to the concurent global release!

Yes folks, at 2pm today the retail world was shaken by news that Argos has alreadystarted selling Halo 3. Users of Eurogamer.net have been merrily posting photos of both reciepts and copies of the long awaited finale to the series.

As of now, neither Microsoft nor Argos have released a statement on the situation which is likely due to staff error than any calculated street break by the chain, however the Halo 3 standard SKU does appear to have been removed from the online webstore where users are now greeted with a message stating 'Catalogue number not found'.

Microsoft's big hope for Q4 has already set global pre-order records and is expected to be one of the top 10 best selling games of all time on launch, which incidentally is due to be September 26th in the UK.

"PS3 is best"

"No 360 is best!"

"You're both wrong, Wii is the best"

Sony, Microsoft, Ninty; the never-ending slew of fanboy insults hurled between 'supporters' of each company and console on a near constant basis is really getting tired. The one-upmanship of securing a format exclusive, territory sales reports, and new benchmark results keep adding to the fire, but nothing ever seems to draw the argument to a close.

And why should it? It's futile, and completely without point. If you were to look at the current Big Three on paper, one is indisputably technically inferior, and yet outselling the other two by miles! Another has a huge catalogue of amazing games, whereas another has the strength of a proven and powerful brand identity behind it.

Truth be told, these should be great times for the Gamer. We have THREE unique and competent machines, each with fantastic reasons to purchase. The Wii is cheap 'n cheerful multiplayer fun, the 360's online service is second to none, and the PS3 is a combined multimedia wonder. But not everyone can afford to own them all, and that's where the problems arise. No one likes to see their machine of choice miss out on a big name, or suffer a drought of AAA titles, or even be dismissed as a fad.

Just think about that the next time an IP slips off one of the machine's release lists, don't be so quick to mock or to rise to other fanboy ravings. We all have something to look forward to on our machines of choice, so while there are titles on the release lists, let's just enjoy it!