Sony has apparently been paying artists to paint "fake" graffiti images of the PSP in some of the most populous U.S. cities. The marketing stunt, by and large, has not been appreciated by residents or the "urban gamers" it seeks to target. Some, however, believe it's a creative approach to modern marketing.


Hardcore gamers can be an almost frighteningly cynical and jaded group of people. This is a lesson that Sony is learning the hard way this week, after numerous influential blogs and message boards began calling the company out for paying artists in over a half-dozen major metropolitan areas to spray paint images of kids playing with PSPs.


It didn't take long for the gaming community to get to the bottom of the marketing, however. Within days gamers had sorted out that the images appearing across the country were in fact identical to one another. Artists began modifying the graffiti images to spout anti-Sony messages, calling the company out for their "urban" marketing attempt.