The freezing issues with Grand Theft Auto IV is affecting a limited number of Playstation 3s and there has been a low volume of calls to customer service about the issue, Sony Computer Entertainment of America said today in the first public statement about the apparent problem.

Despite the "limited number" of people effected by the freezing, Sony says they are working with Rockstar to isolate the issue and identify a solution.

Yes, we are aware of what the message boards and a few of the industry blogs are saying about a 'freezing' issue with GTA IV on a limited number of PS3s. Although we have seen an extremely low volume of contacts to our customer service department regarding such an issue, we want to ensure that every consumer has a great experience on our console and with GTA IV. All parties involved are working to isolate the problem for those few units and identify a solution.

Let's hope this is something that can be fixed with a quick patch and those few, vocal consumers effected by the problem will be able to get down to the business of playing GTA IV finally.