Nu het PlayStation Network alweer een kleine drie weken downer is dan het syndrome, beginnen wereldwijd een hoop NEP gamers hun consoles te verkopen en terug naar de winkels te brengen. Want deze huilebalkjes zijn boos dat ze niet online kunnen spelen, en dat systemen voorzien van een goede beveiliging nou eenmaal even zijn tijd nodig heeft. Bovendien kan je nog altijd met Kai Xlink oa alle Call of Duty titels online spelen via de systeem link optie.

The ongoing PlayStation Network outage is beginning to have an effect on the high street, Edge can reveal.

Our sources indicate a growing trend of PS3 consoles being traded in for cash or Xbox 360s, slumping sales of PSN points cards and a shift in the ratio of multiplatform game sales and pre-orders away from PS3.

"In the first week of downtime we did not really see any major change in sales or trades," says one source, a store manager at a major UK retailer speaking on condition of anonymity. "However from the second week onwards we have seen an increase of over 200 per cent on PS3 consoles being traded in, split almost 50/50 between those trading for cash and those taking a 360 instead."

Another source, working for an independent retailer in the South West, said he had seen a "massive increase" in the volume of PS3s traded in in recent weeks, with most exchanging for an Xbox 360. He describes those trading in their PS3s as "the hardcore online shooter crowd" - players who spend most of their gaming time playing the same game online, and who are therefore greatly impacted by the outage.

Tom Mestdagh, of Belgian indie Gameswap - the only retailer we spoke to happy to go on the record - agrees. "At the end of each month people come to sell their consoles," he tells us. "People that need money [to pay bills]. What's different this time around is that that they are bringing in PS3s together with all their games and they don't want money, they want an Xbox 360. In every case it is because of Black Ops and or Modern Warfare 2.