[Kosh]

Only if you have a PS3

But after a little more than two years, the enjoyment of some owners of the original PS3 has turned to frustration: their machines have broken down without warning, and all have displayed the same fault indicator - a yellow flashing light. When that light shows, the box no longer works. It's become so feared by gamers that they've dubbed it "The Yellow Light of Death".

More than 150 Watchdog viewers have contacted us to say they've experienced it, and by Sony's own admission, around 12,500 of the 2.5 million PlayStations sold in the UK have shut down in this way since March 2007. The problem is mainly thought to affect the 60GB launch model, but Sony repeatedly refuses to release the failure rate for that model, claiming that the information is "commercially sensitive".

Man, sounds like Sony's product quality has really started going into the crapper the last 5 years.........

[The E]

Meh. Still better than Microsofts RROD fiasco.

[terran_emperor]

RROD?

Whats that? I know about the BSOD...

[StarSlayer]

Red Rings of Death

Or its derivative HRROD http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HeroicRROD

[Kosh]

RROD - Red Ring Of Death. Basically all the lights for the 4 wireless control recvievers on the main box would turn red at the same time (making a ring), and when that happened your XBox360 would become a paperweight.

Meh. Still better than Microsofts RROD fiasco.

I don't see how, for Sony this is just the latest in a long line of cock ups. There were the exploding battery recalls (yes there was more than one), the rootkit in the CD recalls, not to mention the various other blunders related to the PS3.

[TESLA]

Sony are saying that BBC got it wrong, i doubt they did.

PS3 Yellow light of Doom

Xbox Red Rings of Death

Wii ??? Blue light of Disfunction / Destruction / Despair

Only a matter of time....

[The E]

It's nowhere near in terms of scale. Yes, Sony's reaction to the whole deal is stupid. Yes, the original PS2 was a lot sturdier (I had a first-generation PS2, bought on Launch day, that kept working for nearly 6 years). However, this has not changed my decision to get one of the new PS3s once I get the money for it.

[Locutus of Borg]

Well since they won't say what the yellow light indicates, maybe it's programmed to do that so that you go out and buy a new one. I wouldn't put it past Sony.

[headdie]

slight perspective call here the numbers brake down into a 4/800 chance of failure

[castor]

Not much of a surprise, more like the norm in consumer electronics today.
What's worst is you don't get better quality by putting more money on the table, just moar irrelevant features that work like crap.

[Liberator]

The YLoD, RRoD and whatever the Wii displays are all the same problem.  Not enough consideration of the amount of heat being generated by an exceptionally power piece of computer processing hardware.  The included fans are typically underpowered and of less volume of movement than what you should be finding on these devices.  My brother bought an addon for his 360 that completely ruins the games because it's a 90 dB fan array.  It's annoyingly loud.

[Colonol Dekker]

I saw the episode of Watchdog mentioned.
 
The programme hired two freelance engineers to sit in a van outside sony hq and fix  PS3s of owners who were invited by the show.
 
Repairs consisted of opening, a quick clean and then something cool.
Putting each console into a special "oven" which gently melted the solder and allowed it to melt sealing any contact breaks.
 
 
All this was on the house and sony tried to stop filming on a public street outside their premises.
 
 
Good episode. Should be on BBC iplayer still. For a week or so.

[MR_T3D]

I've personallly seen a 'box and wii die, but then again, i've seen a few more of them than ps3's, this YLOD is really an attention-grabber, and source of pleasure to xbox fanboys.
(FYI i prefer the 'box mainly because of its controller)

[Mongoose]

The YLoD, RRoD and whatever the Wii displays are all the same problem.

The Wii doesn't have an equivalent problem, at least not as far as I'm aware.  That isn't to say that a few Wiis haven't failed, but there's certainly nothing systemic enough to generate a cutesy nickname.  Say what you will about Nintendo, but they've always produced very durable hardware.  I heard stories of people who dropped a GameCube from four feet up onto solid concrete, yet it received just a few minor scratches and fired right up again without any problems.

[Colonol Dekker]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00mqlth/Watchdog_17_09_2009/

Here it is, can't remember where in the show it is, but there are a few other stories to wade through.

[butter_pat_head]

Sometimes when it comes to things like this I find that Watchdog blow things completely out of proportion.  I remember waaay back when the Dreamcast got it's UK release.  For a lot of people this was their first gateway to the internet so quite naturally on launch day after unwrapping their machines they try the online functions.  At the time Sega had a deal with BT as its ISP of choice in the UK so its no great shock that the dial up lines were jammed for quite some time.

Lets just say that the head of Sega UK at the time got a right talking to by Anne herself for something that was pretty much out of Sega's hands at the time.

[Eishtmo]

Hey, anyone hear about Wii's breaking down?

No?

Neither have I.

[Kosh]

It's nowhere near in terms of scale. Yes, Sony's reaction to the whole deal is stupid. Yes, the original PS2 was a lot sturdier (I had a first-generation PS2, bought on Launch day, that kept working for nearly 6 years). However, this has not changed my decision to get one of the new PS3s once I get the money for it.

Maybe so, but like I said, Sony's product quality overall is in decline. The question that should be asked is "what next?"

[Mongoose]

Maybe so, but like I said, Sony's product quality overall is in decline. The question that should be asked is "what next?"

Where are you seeing evidence for this "overall quality decline," though?  From the numbers stated in that article, 0.5% of the consoles sold in Britain over the past two years have experienced this total failure...when you compare that to the number of XBox 360 owners who have experienced the Red Ring of Death over the lifetime of their consoles, which I've heard estimated at two orders of magnitude greater (that's 50%), that's an almost trivial number.  It doesn't suck any less for the affected owners, and I really think that Sony should be employing the policy that Microsoft did and extending the free-replacement period on their warranties, but it's still nothing near epidemic-level.

(And before anyone jumps on me, I own neither a 360 nor a PS3, so withhold your raging cries of "Fanboi!" )

[Kosh]

Where are you seeing evidence for this "overall quality decline," though?

I gave a list of major product recalls that have happened over the last 4 years, each one costing hundreds of millions of dollars. 10 years ago I don't recall there being such a string of failures at Sony.

when you compare that to the number of XBox 360 owners who have experienced the Red Ring of Death over the lifetime of their consoles, which I've heard estimated at two orders of magnitude greater (that's 50%), that's an almost trivial number.

True, although you are also talking a company not known for making quality products (it wasn't until Windows 2000 that they FINALLY had something good). Anyone still remember Windows ME?