Red ring, yellow ring . . .

[Alias]

The Xbox 360’s Red Ring of Death was a serious and much talked-about hardware issue that has affected millions of machines worldwide. It was an issue that Microsoft had to deal with and it did just that, despite it costing the company up to $1 billion to do so. Has the PS3 got a similar common hardware issue that can be classified as the ‘Yellow Light of Death?’ The BBC claims so, and Sony isn’t happy.

Last week saw the BBC’s flagship consumer show Watchdog go to town on the Playstation 3. After receiving a couple of hundred complaints about the machine breaking, Watchdog dedicated almost half a show to investigating the issue. The problem was the show, fronted by a botox-encrusted Anne Robinson, made some pretty wild accusations. Sony is now fighting back and denying there is a serious problem.

The report is filled with inaccuracies. First up is the oft repeated price tag of £400. That was indeed the price at launch but it promptly came down to £300 and is now £250. Which means every mention of it in the report is essentially a big fat lie.

The Watchdog report on YouTube:

YouTube - BBC Watchdog - Sony PS3 Yellow Light of...

Sony offers a 12 month guarantee on all consoles, which is the same period of warranty offered by almost all manufacturers of almost all electrical goods. Because, and this may surprise you to know, things go wrong. In fact, around 1 percent of electrical goods fail. Sony claims the failure rate for the PS3 is around half of one percent. Compare this to the failure rate of between 30 and 50 percent of all Xbox 360s and the two issues cannot be compared.

As for back-ups of game data, saves, photos and movies etc. Since when is it the manufacturer’s responsibility to make sure these are backed up? How many PC manufacturers are going to even give you the time of day if your system crashes after the warranty has run out and you ask them to compensate you for the lost data? It’s your responsibility so get over it.

Sony has responded to the piece by saying, “It is unfair to suggest that from an installed base of 2.5m that the numbers [Watchdog] mentions somehow are evidence of a ‘manufacturing defect.’” Which is correct because even though the figures suggest around 12,500 consoles have gone wrong in the U.K., that’s a figure to be expected with any electrical item.

I’m not completely backing Sony here. Its decision to charge £128 for a repair or refurbished PS3 is excessive. But this report from Watchdog is unfair and unprofessional and actually shows a lack of understanding of the hardware. It also fails to inform consumers of any really useful information such as which models are affected. So, a big fail all round from the Watchdog team.


Does your XBOX have the Red Ring of Death? Try HERE for a fix.

[C_R]

My 360 got 3 red lights.
Know what I did?

Fuck all & moved on.

[Alias]

How illuminating.

[C_R]

Good.