PS3, an Xbox 360 in wolfs clothing?

Mike Bantick
Saturday, 17 February 2007 06:23

Opinion and Analysis

Well one Australian retailer seems to think so, with an in store promotion for the PlayStation 3 being powered by the Microsoft game console.

Major Australian retailer Harvey Norman is slightly embarrassed this morning after pictures of a shoddy display at the Bondi Junction store, for the upcoming PlayStation 3 hit the web.

A series of photos taken of the display have appeared on a flickr site overnight.  They show a life size colour picture of the new Sony console above two advertising posters. 

But lurking behind the console picture is an actual game console.  No! not a new white version of the Sony electronic marvel, but instead an Xbox 360.

Whacky!

Why was it there in the first place?  Apparently it was running a screen somewhere showing Harvey Norman adverts.
The display has since been taken down (this may not have been a big job).

When queried about the incident by the Sydney Morning Herald; A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment, but Sony Australia's Adrian Christie described the display as "alarming news".

Christie contacted the store and discovered; "It was sort of an overzealous merchandising mistake, he [the store's proprietor] explained to me," said Christie.  "The display had been up 24 hours and they were using it as a playback device to show Harvey Norman ads, I would have a really big problem if they were in any way deceiving people by pretending that it was PS3 content."