News - Sony and BBC clash over PS3 problems

[HEXUS]

Sony has sent the BBC a stinging rebuttal after the broadcaster's Watchdog programme investigated an alleged PlayStation 3 problem.

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[bradyjames]

12,500 failures out of 2,500,000 sold is the same as 'half of one percent'. Reading into the Sony quote they state the failure rate is 'fewer than half of one percent' but this implies it must be pretty close to this because otherwise they would word it differently. Therefore it seems like Sony's rebuttal is actually supporting the BBC's statistics.

[synaesthesia]

"But since the issue appears to affect consoles after 18-24 months of use, the BBC claimed that Sony said it isn't liable."

Of course they're liable - sure we're mostly all aware of the EU Sale of Goods act by now. If it fails through no fault of the user(s), they are fully liable and obliged to repair or replace at no cost. 18months to 2 years is well within what I'd call "reasonable time".

[Philipp]

Mine failed within 2 weeks, back to Game for a refund, Ill stick to my PCs from now on.

[Main]

The worst part is Sony don't guarantee you'll get your hard drive content or game disc(if it fails with one in it) if you send it for repairs (applies to other consoles too), whilst these two guys they had on Watchdog did. Why can't an enormous company do that?

[Barrichello]

Nearly 3 years and still going strong here

Less than 1% you have to be pretty unlucky.

[Vimeous]

The worst part is Sony don't guarantee you'll get your hard drive content or game disc(if it fails with one in it) if you send it for repairs (applies to other consoles too), whilst these two guys they had on Watchdog did. Why can't an enormous company do that?

No IT support company guarantees data retention - even those in the data recovery business would be mad to do so.

At least with the 360's red-ring they ask you to keep the hard drive.

[Main]

No IT support company guarantees data retention - even those in the data recovery business would be mad to do so.

Fair enough.

At least with the 360's red-ring they ask you to keep the hard drive.

One of the comments on the Register points out that "Disk swaps are not possible on a PS3 since the disk is encrypted with a machine dependent key" which seems a bit harsh if it's true, especially given as you can upgrade the hard drive without breaking warranty...

[cordas]

Sony want to mess with the plastic faced harpy from hell..... more fool them!

They would have been far better off IMHO if they had just sent a representative and said hey we will extend our warranty to 24months. If its less than 0.5% failure rating they aren't going to loose that much but will gain a big chunk of free publicity from Watchdog whilst at the same time painting a good image for the entire Sony brand.

[Knoxville]

The worst part is Sony don't guarantee you'll get your hard drive content or game disc(if it fails with one in it) if you send it for repairs (applies to other consoles too), whilst these two guys they had on Watchdog did. Why can't an enormous company do that?

More annoying than that imo is that if you're lucky enough to have a 60gig PS3 with backwards compatability now that the sku's no longer available in stores they won't go out of their way to make sure you get one back if it fails and has to go to them for repair/replacement, even if you're paying for the work.

I've got a 40gig myself so it's not a concern for me but many customers paid a premium at launch for the 60gig so that the catalogue of PS2 titles they've kept from the previous generation remain playable and I've heard of quite a few people that have had to send them in for repair only to have a replacement 40gig and a free game sent back to them as compensation, not really a shining example of how to treat early adopters of the your flagship model for the Playstation brand to be honest.

[explicit4u]

60GB Launch PS3 still going strong, i think watchdog just needed a story and decided, hey, we've taken a shot at MS why not Sony!? I had a friend who had the YLOD (RRoD sounds better) out of warranty, Sony took 2 months to send it back but as compensation gave him a choice of two PS3 games plus, it came back with a 80GB HD as opposed to the 60GB he sent it off with, guess some get it better than others!!!

[lodore]

less than 1percent. you really would have to be unlucky. compare that to 54percent of xbox360's breaking. nothing is perfect. sony stuff is far more reliable that most other brands. i have had my ps2 since lanch day and it still works perfectly. my ps1 still works perfectly. mysony walkman ive had for around 3-4 years and it still works perfectly. i think you get the idea now lol.

[Stoo]

I've got an original launch Japanese PS3 which is still running strong.

The only glitch I had is that a couple of the USB ports died, but I got round that with a cheap usb hub.

[Georgy291]

12 month sounds like a perfectly reasonable time to me, i just looked at most off my other electronic stuff and most of it seems to be 12 month to.

and i dont see how it breakes from "not users" fault, id think those 0.5% are just keeping it running non stop 24/7.....then no wonder

[finlay666]

12 month sounds like a perfectly reasonable time to me, i just looked at most off my other electronic stuff and most of it seems to be 12 month to.

and i dont see how it breakes from "not users" fault, id think those 0.5% are just keeping it running non stop 24/7.....then no wonder

12 months is NOT reasonable for an expensive electronic product to last.

Say you paid £350 for a console
That is £1 per day you are paying for the use of it if it dies after a year

[Georgy291]

12 months is NOT reasonable for an expensive electronic product to last.

Say you paid £350 for a console
That is £1 per day you are paying for the use of it if it dies after a year

my 50" plasma came with a 12 month woranty......most off my computer bits to

consoles arent built to last tho, they are built so that they last a expected life time. i guess sony just want people to buy their new slim line one