Hong Kong Airport teams up with Sony to provide free gaming to travelers

27 January 2010 | Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) has installed 14 Playstation 3 (PS3) Game Poles at various locations in the airport to help waiting travellers pass the time in a more entertaining way. Recent research carried out by the airport found that departing passengers spend an average of four hours at HKIA, including three hours airside. The gaming poles are full out PS3 devices similar to what one might find at home or in a videogame room, which are common throughout Asia. The PS3 poles feature the latest PS3 games including ‘Final Fantasy XIII and the game version of the recent James Cameron blockbuster, Avatar, and people can use the machines for free and for as long as they wish.

The gaming poles are implemented in partnership with Sony Entertainment, the developer of Playstation 3. A few years ago, Sony already teamed up with Aeroports de Paris to install 73 free PS gaming poles near departure gates throughout the terminals at Charles de Gaulle airport. These game stations have side panels for privacy and stools to let gamers sit, and offer 20 of Sony’s best-selling demo games.

The free Sony PS3 game poles are a fine example of how ‘marketing as a service’: brands providing a relevant service for free, instead of in-your-face advertising, to market their product to consumers. The game poles resemble an earlier initiative from Samsung Mobile which in the past years installed hundreds of power poles throughout airports in the USA (8 airports) and Europe (London, Paris), in cooperation with JC Decaux. Passengers can use the Samsung power poles to recharge their mobile devices (including non-Samsung ones) for free. At HKIA Departure Concourse, 5 similar power poles are offered by Hong Kong-based mobile phone operator 1O1O since August 2009.

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