Several gamers are reporting that they have been able to purchase The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild from retailers before the game's official release on March 3rd 2017.

The next Zelda game was scheduled to launch this coming Friday, March 3rd 2017, but on social media and via e-mails sent to our editorial team gamers are reporting that they were able to purchase the Wii U version of the game earlier today.

According to received reports, retailers located in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany have all broken the game's street date to sell the game five days before its official release.

One retailer in the Netherlands had even put the game on their shelves last Friday, February 24th 2017, a full week before the game's official launch date.

Retailers often use the sales tactic as a shady marketing scheme to rake in additional early bird sales through the social media and press coverage that they get as a result from selling the games early.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild launches on March 3rd 2017 for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Wii U.