OK, that’s not literally what they said.

Sony has said it will use the “full scope of the law” to block the importing of PlayStation 3s (PS3) into Europe before its official release.

Why?

The spokesman said: “Ultimately, we’re trying to protect consumers from being sold hardware that does not conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards.”

So the products they sell in Japan and the US are unsafe, then? And we need to be protected from their shoddy kit? Did they really just imply that? ’Cause that’s what I heard.

This problem is one of their own making, in a sense: by choosing to release their new console in the US and Japan next month, but not in Europe until March next year, they’ve alienated their European customers and created a market for grey imports. Customers in Europe are already used to getting stuff later and paying more, but that doesn’t mean they like it!

Personally, I don’t care whether the PS3 is released late or never over here, but I do care about the principle. Claiming to be looking out for the consumer is a specious newspeak justification for their behaviour, and one that doesn’t ring true.

It does, however, fit Sony’s recent pattern of hubris and customer hostility, best evinced by the CD rootkit fiasco.

And I suppose they need to make up the ¥51,000,000,000 that those exploding batteries have cost them somehow!