Sony and BBC clash over PS3 problems
The Red Yellow Light of Death
Sony has sent the BBC a stinging rebuttal after the broadcaster's Watchdog programme investigated an alleged PlayStation 3 problem dubbed The Yellow Light of Death.
Watchdog launched the investigation because, according to the BBC, over 150 PS3 owners had contacted the show after their Sony consoles broke down without warning.
All displayed the same fault indicator - a yellow flashing light, the BBC alleged.
“When that light shows, the box no longer works”, the BBC said in a statement on its Watchdog website. “It's become so feared by gamers that they've dubbed it The Yellow Light of Death”.
The BBC also alleged that, by Sony’s own admission, around 12,500 of the 2.5m PS3s sold in the UK since March 2007 have broken down in the same way.
But Sony has since staunchly denied the claims.
“Fewer than one half of one percent of [UK] units have been reported as failing in circumstances where the yellow indicator is illuminated”, the Japanese electronics giant said in its rebuttal to the BBC.
According to Sony, “the yellow light indicator is simply a non-specific fault indicator that can be triggered in a range of different circumstances”. Humm…
If this failure had occurred in the first 12 months after purchase, Sony would have replaced the console without charge - the BBC said.
But since the issue appears to affect consoles after 18-24 months of use, the BBC claimed that Sony said it isn't liable.
For £128 ($209/€142), Sony will swap your broken PS3 for a refurbished model. But the firm hasn’t announced any plans to extend the PS3’s warranty to cover “certain general hardware failures” – as Microsoft did back in 2007. ®
COMMENTS
@edwardecl
"How can you get better service than that. Not sure what happens with the ps3 because it hasn't broke yet..."
I'll bite. My xbox had the dreaded RROD. After filling a form on microsoft's website and the UPS website, a courier picked up the console the next day. After 3 days, the console was back with a replacement motherboard.
Dontcha love hearsay and wild assumptions!
Watchdog are clearly in the wrong here...
A failure rate of 0.5% is totally acceptable and expected. I have had a ps2 in the past where is broke and physically broke a disc that was in the drive (laser burn). It was out of warrently phoned sony up told them that it destoryed a game as well 3 days later a courier turns up with a brand new unit with the replacment game that broke and all the leads were swapped.
How can you get better service than that. Not sure what happens with the ps3 because it hasn't broke yet...
As for for the xbox dont you have to send it back yourself and wait a month to get it back and they don't replace any games it's broken. Thats what I call service...
People pulling figures....
out of there arse?
"Microsoft on the other hand have 60% failure rates."
Just one (the most extreme, granted) example of it. 60% failure? Oh my days.... I have no idea what it is but are you telling me that (for example) well over HALF the X360's failed? Wow! My mates and I are VERY lucky bunch then! We have four between us all and not one of them has failed. Lucky us!
Unless you were talking about another MS product, would be glad to know about it so I can avoid it! (with evidence of course and not just wild accusations and hear-say)
No wonder you posted as an AC.
dont forget your credit card company too
your CC company would also be part liable in these cases too under CCLaw
@ShaggyDoggy
""Disk swaps are not possible on a PS3 since the disk is encrypted with a machine dependent key"
And they get away with that ?
I'd love to hear Sony's overriding technical rationale for doing this."
else all we would need to do is 1 person buy loads of download games and then just clone the HDs....
