PS3 Failure story by BBC Watchdog heavily criticised

By Richard

September

21

2009

Following recent claims made on the BBC TV show Watchdog regarding failures on the Sony PS3, the Japanese gaming giant denied any claims that a technical fault know as the “yellow light of death” was widespread on is console.

Three PlayStation repair companies were approached by the TV show and were asked to look at a number of faulty game consoles and from this it was apparently found that the solder that connects the various components inside the console together displayed a high level of faults.

A study carried out by Sony, however, found that the conclusion of widespread manufacturing defects were not supported and went on to say that the claims were nothing more than a ‘stunt’.

Before to show aired the senior vice president and managing director of Sony UK, Ray Maguire wrote a letter to the editor of the programme stating “We think it is highly unfair to suggest that from an installed base of 2.5 million that the numbers you mention somehow are evidence of a ‘manufacturing defect’.”

He went on to write “The phrase ‘yellow light of death’ has been adopted by certain members of the online community to describe the situation in which PS3 systems have shut down following the illumination of the yellow light on the PS3′s front panel. The yellow indicator is simply a non-specific fault indicator that can be triggered in a range of different circumstances.”

Soldering issues could not be identified as the definitive source of a manufacturing issue because of that fact that not all of the consoles looked at by the Watchdog technician had this issue present in them said Maguire. The show treated an issue that could have serious damaged the reputation of both the PlayStation 3 and Sony brand names with an inappropriate level of levity he added.

An investigation into this issue was carried out by Watchdog following complaints it received from 150 viewers regarding problems with their PS3 consoles and because of this the BCC has stood by its show.

In a statement the BBC advised that stories of the “yellow light of death” had been sent in by another 265 PlayStation 3 owners following the broadcasting of the show and said “We presented a fair and accurate account of their stories, using expert advice and we broadcast Sony’s response.”

Source – Telegraph