pt has just turned eight and a former brand manager of Konami, Pearl Lai, has revealed some background on the removal of the game.
“Fun fact: Since I was Konami’s First Party Games Manager at the time, I helped create this product on the storefronts, fake publisher and all,” she wrote. “And it was me who had to call Sony to ask them to take it down and block the downloads. It was a very fun conversation.”
Lai then answered many questions from fans about PT’s removal, but obviously didn’t say why PT was actually removed. The woman only stated: “I say it with love: ‘because it’s Konami’.”
In his replies, Lai clarified that it was a “difficult situation” for those working at Konami, and gave special praise to the Sony teams and Konami’s customer support personnel. “Sony (as always) has been amazing working with us. It’s been a difficult situation for everyone,” she wrote.
When asked by a fan whether it was embarrassing to ask Sony to remove the PT, Lai replied: “Embarrassing is the right word! We had already done a lot of things to organize it, getting a lot of operational exceptions. And then add the request to block the download even for those who already owned the game? [Sono servite] other engineering solutions. It was exciting to see the public become passionate about the product and to see the hard work paying off! But in a way, no.”
According to Lai, PT was the first time Sony had been asked to de-list and block re-downloads of a video game on its digital store.
“Believe me, I wish it had been different too,” she replied to a fan. “It was definitely a lot of fun organizing this secret thing for the fans. It was amazing to see everyone come together to try and understand the experience and to see that they got so much love out of it! I’m super grateful to have been a part of it in some way.”
Kojima also talked about PT and the sensations he experienced.
