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: Final Fantasy XIII, Uncharted 2, Assassin’s Creed 2, and Avatar: The Game. 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: MoodieReport via Kotaku.
