Well it could just be that the PS3's they tested on were different to the PS3s that people use. IE perfect condition. They may not have had the tolerance in the game for the variation in the hardware out in the wild.

There are a group of PS3s that have slightly different processors. It depends on which SPU has been turned off, it DOES affect latency in the processor and that can influence things a bit.

Also since this game is played a lot, and its quite demanding if theres a pattern of WHO gets the fault then perhaps it will be clear.

But we kinda need information like - 20/40/60/80 gig model, how old the machine, how often it was used, if it was used for folding, standing up/flat lying. If theres a trend for 40gig people to experience it for instance, then it is possible that it is a hardware error.

 What he said. What a ridiculous statement by rockstar.

Pretty much all rockstar games freeze at some point, eventually. They just didn't work the bugs out of the PS3 version in time.

However, fanboys, you miss the most important argument here:

If the game never freezes on some playstation 3s and freezes a lot on other Playstation 3s, then by definition, some PS3's are inferior/obsolete to other PS3's and therefore could be defined as "faulty" PS3's if they fall within the same SKU model.

Also, being a good developer from a technical standpoint is much less important than being a good developer from a gameplay standpoint. I've seen plenty of technically impressive games that sucked, I've never seen a game so mired in technical problems with great gameplay, that I could say "sucked." Mass Effect, Vampire the Masquerade:Bloodlines, and GTAIV come to mind here.

Nintendo is good at both. So is Kojima. In fact, Japanese companies in general make sure that the technical aspects are well rounded for their games.

However, in the non-obsessive-compulsive cultures of the rest of the world, developers tend to, well, not be so obsessive-compulsive when it comes to every little pop-up or glitch.

GTA is such a massive game that simply by scope you should expect pop-ins, I don't care how powerful your machine is.

I think we should all take time out of our day to fornicate ourselves everyonce and awhile.

 So these will be the PS3s just out of warranty?