Sony rep says PS3 kiosks freeze up intended

Over at Destructoid, Nick Brutal recounts a very weird experience with a Sony representative at his local game store. We’re pretty sure that someone’s going to get fired very soon over consumer nuttiness like this one.

Here’s your backstory: During the days before the PS3 launch, Nick noticed that the demo kiosk for the PS3 was closed in his local EB Games store. According to the clerk there, it was because the darned thing froze up five times in the course of a day, and this was the same day they got the demo unit. Wonderful, right?

Well, a few days back, he revisits that same store to find a Sony representative cleaning the kiosk he was talking about a month back (at least, we all assume it to be, but that’s another point entirely). Here’s the conversation Nick and Sony Rep had:

“So dude over there,” I said pointing to the busy clerk, “says he keeps the kiosk off because it keeps freezing up.”

“Nope. No it doesn’t.”

“Well, actually, yeah. It does. I’ve seen it happen myself.”

“No. It doesn’t. We did that on purpose,” he said.

“You make the entire console lock up on purpose because… why?”

“We do that so that people won’t play it all day long,” he explained. “Specifically during Motorstorm, we made it freeze up a lot.”

Two possibilities here. If it’s true, PS3 owners will riot, causing the end of the world. If it’s not, the rep is going to have a lot to answer for. Given how he says he’ll be turning on the unit “so you can get a glimpse of the future,” we’re inclined to think the possibility is for the latter.

Over at Destructoid, Nick Brutal recounts a very weird experience with a Sony representative at his local game store. We’re pretty sure that someone’s going to get fired very soon over consumer nuttiness like this one.

Here’s your backstory: During the days before the PS3 launch, Nick noticed that the demo kiosk for the PS3 was closed in his local EB Games store. According to the clerk there, it was because the darned thing froze up five times in the course of a day, and this was the same day they got the demo unit. Wonderful, right?

Well, a few days back, he revisits that same store to find a Sony representative cleaning the kiosk he was talking about a month back (at least, we all assume it to be, but that’s another point entirely). Here’s the conversation Nick and Sony Rep had:

“So dude over there,” I said pointing to the busy clerk, “says he keeps the kiosk off because it keeps freezing up.”

“Nope. No it doesn’t.”

“Well, actually, yeah. It does. I’ve seen it happen myself.”

“No. It doesn’t. We did that on purpose,” he said.

“You make the entire console lock up on purpose because… why?”

“We do that so that people won’t play it all day long,” he explained. “Specifically during Motorstorm, we made it freeze up a lot.”

Two possibilities here. If it’s true, PS3 owners will riot, causing the end of the world. If it’s not, the rep is going to have a lot to answer for. Given how he says he’ll be turning on the unit “so you can get a glimpse of the future,” we’re inclined to think the possibility is for the latter.