I swear, if there’s a Retail Packagers’ Association, its mission statement must be: “Forcing You to Use Something Other than Your Bare Hands, Preferably a Steak Knife, to Open the Shit You Just Bought.”

It’s like this for everything from video games to video tape to this brand of potato chips, which come in a bag I swear was sealed with a motherfucking hot melt glue gun. But Sony, in a gesture that I could never cover with enough praise, has said enough is enough: Death to clamshell packaging.

About a month ago, Sony said it was teaming up with Best Buy and Walmart to offer more convenient packaging that still provided enough anti-shoplifting security. Now, in a post on its electronics blog last week, it has said definitively the clamshell is finished.

I know consumers, including myself, get annoyed about how difficult they are to open. In fact, they typically can’t be opened without the use of a sharp device of some kind. Sony is working on the matter and I expect we will have a new alternative to announce soon.

Amazon announced a “frustration-free” packaging initiative for certain products back in November. Even then, a DualShock controller (not in the program) arrived in its standard plastic fortress that I still had to ginsu open. Sony throwing its weight behind this consumer-friendly initiative is very commendable and should motivate others in the industry to join up as well.

Here’s a silly video Sony put together announcing the, uh, announcement. Warning, there’s blood.

Bravo, Sony. Now, not to sound ungrateful, but when you get a moment can you take a look at those hermetically sealed DVDs and games …

Sony Declares Death to the Clamshell! [Sony Electronics Blog via Joystiq]