For those in the United Kingdom who were hoping to snap up the first PlayStation phone, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play on the O2 UK network on the 1st of April, it appears that you’ll be out of luck as O2 wont be releasing the gaming smartphone on that date.

According to an article over on Engadget, O2 announced via their official blog, that they have postponed the release of the Android 2.3 Gingerbread handset until further notice due to finding software bugs and thus will not offer the device to their customers until said bugs and issues have been ironed out.

However, apparently no other UK carrier that is releasing the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play has delayed the release date, with Vodafone still on track to push out their pre-orders for the gaming centric handset by the 5th of April.

Here’s apparently what Sony Ericsson had to say about the release delay… “Sony Ericsson Xperiaâ„¢ PLAY will be launching on 1st April across all UK mobile operator partners except for O2, who have decided to prolong the testing period in order to ensure that the software meets the requirements of its procedures. Sony Ericsson will be working with O2 over the next couple of weeks to expedite the process and ensure that O2 customers can soon join consumers across the UK in being able to enjoy the world’s first PlayStation certified smartphone.”

So there you have it, although one does have to give kudos to O2 UK for not wanting to deliver the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play laden with bugs, one does have to wonder why others haven’t commented that the device is suffering for issues.

Thus if you are of the impatient kind and really want the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play on April Fools Day best not try to get it from O2, unless of course you want the white version, which is an O2 UK exclusive.