Hong Kong Airport Installs PS3 Kiosks

Tom Goldman

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Aug 17, 2009
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Hong Kong Airport Installs PS3 Kiosks



You might actually want your flight to be delayed if it's flying out of Hong Kong International.

Waiting for flights, especially delayed flights, can be a very boring activity. Playing Nintendo DS or Sony PSP can help pass the time, but these handhelds just don't compare to the next-gen experience of the PlayStation 3. What if you could enjoy some Uncharted 2 action while hoping that your connecting flight to Shanghai will still hit the skies despite unfavorable weather? Shockingly, as is the point of this article, now you can.

Hong Kong International Airport has installed PlayStation 3 "Game Poles" in various locations and terminals. These are full out PS3 kiosks similar to what you might find at your local evil corporate videogame store. Playing a Game Pole is free too, making Hong Kong's Airport Authority look even more like heroes of the travel industry. They might be deployed as part of an advertising campaign, as Hong Kong International Airport has the fourth-highest international passenger volume according to a 2008 survey, and people tend to hang around waiting for flights for about four hours on average. Even with only 14 PS3s available, that would still make for a lot of exposure.

The software available on these Game Poles surprisingly doesn't suck. They feature the best of the Tokyo Game Show 2009: Avatar: The Game [http://www.amazon.com/Final-Fantasy-XIII-Playstation-3/dp/B000FQ2DTA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1278964269&sr=1-1]. What HKIA needs to incorporate is a reminder system, where passengers can input their departing flights and times, otherwise it's almost assured that at least one obsessive gamer would miss a flight because he/she had to beat just one more mission. Airlines will not refund your ticket price if you walk up to them saying: "Sh*t, I was playing PS3."

Source: Kotaku [http://www.moodiereport.com/document.php?c_id=1113&doc_id=23001].





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tmujir955

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Oct 12, 2009
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Dammit, you're not supposed to have fun at the airport!

STOP SCREWING UP THE SYSTEM!
 

MetaKnight19

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Thats pretty cool. Late last year I was in Singapore airport and they have a PC LAN room, a soundproofed Guitar Hero/Rock Band room and a few 360s dotted around the place. On the downside, most of the games on the 360s were just plain bad. Everything else was awesome
 

Bassman_2

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With so few and long wait times for flights it would burden them if two kids loudly argued that it was their turn as the pimply 30 year old guy who lives down the street just came in there to play for free. Oh wait, GameStop.

They should have put it all together for a great multiplayer festival between the people.
 

Blindrooster

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Reeper0278 said:
With so few and long wait times for flights it would burden them if two kids loudly argued that it was their turn as the pimply 30 year old guy who lives down the street just came in there to play for free. Oh wait, GameStop.

They should have put it all together for a great multiplayer festival between the people.
No, because if it was multiplayer and somebody was ticking me off i think i would rather stay behind and kill them repeatedly than catch my flight.
 

dthvirus

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Oct 2, 2008
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They'd have to impose time limits. I don't know how RPG games would work... Four hours is one boss battle, in Final Fantasy, I hear.

thenumberthirteen said:
Tom Goldman said:
They feature the best of the Tokyo Game Show 2009: Final Fantasy XIII, Uncharted 2, Assassin's Creed 2, and Avatar: The Game.
Spot the odd one out.
Nice eye, sir.
 

Avatar Roku

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Not as new as you think, I went to France a few years ago and de Gaulle Airport had a few of those stands. Mostly downloadable games though, and they were sort of off to the side where most people didn't notice them.
 

Gladion

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thenumberthirteen said:
Tom Goldman said:
They feature the best of the Tokyo Game Show 2009: Final Fantasy XIII, Uncharted 2, Assassin's Creed 2, and Avatar: The Game.
Spot the odd one out.
Weird, huh? You might think they wanted to make a statement with that one, i.e. giving their neighbours the middle finger.
 

Pingieking

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Hell yeah. It was already one of the best airports in the world, now it's just unfair.
Sure beats the hell out of flying to the US.
 

Tom Goldman

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Aug 17, 2009
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thenumberthirteen said:
Tom Goldman said:
They feature the best of the Tokyo Game Show 2009: Final Fantasy XIII, Uncharted 2, Assassin's Creed 2, and Avatar: The Game.
Spot the odd one out.
Heh, yeah, I just haven't played it so I wasn't sure. It could be okay, I guess. Not really.