In the face of the Xbox 360 repair debacle, why is no one stepping up and giving credit to Sony?
The PlayStation needs to be on its side to avoid overheating. The PlayStation 2 won’t read blue-bottom discs. The PSP suffers from dead pixels and unresponsive square buttons. The PlayStation 3 fails to……
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26 - Dynamo of Eternia
My opinion of Sony hasn't been very high for quite some time. The PS2 disc read issues were the breaker for me. I met way to many people who had them, and then it finally happened to mine. Luckily, since my then-fiance (now wife) had just moved in together when this happened, and she had a still-working PS2, I didn't have to buy another one.
I never had any major problems with my original Playstation, but I got mine in 1997, after the problems were solved. (By the way... a couple of people said they got their PS1 in 1994.... I thought the system didn't even come out until 1995..?)
It was funny because I got my PS2 at launch (after personally having a fairly positive experience with the first system, and not yet being aware of the disc read issues to come). Then when Xbox launched a year later, I was leary of it, thinking it might die off prematurely. Luckily it proved to end up being a decent system, and I eventually got one.
I ended up liking it more than PS2, and then when the disc read problems with the PS2 became prominent, my opinions of Sony just went right down the toilet. I also got Gamecube, and love a lot of the exclusives on that system as well. Except for a very few exclusives (like the Kingdom Heart series), PS2 is more or less a useless system to me. I found the Xbox and Gamecube to be a great combo for my tastes.
At that, I ended up getting Xbox 360 pretty much right away (I had reserved mine, but due to the shortage, I didn't get it until just after Christmas.
I am happy to report that I have yet to have any major problems with my 360 (knock on wood). It still works fine. I got one of those Nyko Intercoolers, and it seems to be doing the job well. However, given the failure rate of the system, I am really concerned about it overall. I just hope that they actually develop good systems that don't have this problem anymore. That way, if mine does break down, at least they will replace it with a quality machine or quality new parts.
I also got a Wii at launch and enjoy that system as well.
I have yet to get PS3, and I don't know if or when I will.
I didn't want to jump on board given Sony's past hardware reputation. However, as stated in this article, they haven't had much of a problem.
Of course, if we take into account that the system hasn't been selling nearly as well as PS2, and the lack of games for the system (I've read a lot of message boards and blogs about people's systems just sitting there), a good amount of the systems seem to not be getting much use.
Granted, a few people here mentioned using theirs frequently, but not every system is going to break down either. Given the lack of wear and tear across the board and the fact that there just aren't as many PS3's out there as Sony had anticipated, if there are a few duds, it's probably not as big of a deal.
And despite the system seeming to work well, I still don't see much reason to get it. There's nothing out for it or coming out for it that I can't get on another system that I already own that is wowing me. Hardware issues aside, even Xbox 360 has been a little lack-luster for me. It's got a bit more interest for me game-wise than PS3, but not by a lot. I actually find that most of the games coming out this fall that I am looking forward to are going to be on the Wii. Though, there are a few good ones hitting the 360, that I may pick up. Also, a lot of games are coming out on both PS3 and 360, but with extra exclusive content on 360.
If PS3 eventually gets some exclusives that I care about and if it comtinues to function well, I may get one down the road. But, right now, it's just not doing much for me. And if that doesn't change, I may never get one, which would be kind of weird because this would be the first console generation in quite a while in which I don't end up owning all of the major systems. But, I can't justify spending over $500 on a system that I just don't think I'm going to get a lot of use out of.
27 - pander_killer
Unfortunately i'm in a traumatic crisis now after my PS3 died yesterday. It's the 60GB model brought from launch and been running like a mint till something mysterious happened. There i was playing on Ridge Racer 7, power sliding through a corner then the title locked up... froze on the screen. All keys did not respond and i noticed the (normally green) LED was flashing red continuously. I had no choice but to power it down through the back (Power switch). Waited about 20 seconds before re-initialising the power again. After that the PS3 ceased to function again. When i power the console a the internal fans comes on. Brief green light appear for 2 secs, then a flash of yellow light with a quick sudden click noise. Thereafter the fans shut off and the continuous flashing red lights kicks in. Throughout the whole process nothing comes on the TV screen. Moreover the game disc (Ridge Racer 7) is still trapped inside the machine. I tried force eject (Hold Eject button 10 secs), soft reset (Hold Power button 5 secs) still no luck. I even tried disconnecting the 60GB HD and waiting hours for the machine to cool down. Now i finally declare my PS3 is dead as a do-do. To my knowledge the machine was played horizontally flat down, running with the latest firmware (2.42), machine was offline at the time of the incident. Hmmm... i'm really gutted now, i loved my PS3 and i'm concerned that if i send my machine for repair services i will get back the 40GB or 80GB model where PS2 backward compatibility is removed along with 2 less USB ports and memory card reader. I'm wondering if anyone else this problem?
BTW this is not biased or an attack on Sony. I'm an experienced gamer and i do owe a x360. Also my X360 died last year (3 Red ring of lights), but despite the machine out of the gaurantee period Microsoft kindly agreed to repair the console for free with courier pickup. 4 Days later the console returned but i noticed another issue. The machine started to scratch and mark discs (smear circular marks in a form of concentric raidial rings). I later sold the x360 and brouht the new Halo 3 special edition console. Since then i had no problems and everything runs fine.
Back to the PS3 issue. I suspect 2 main problems. One either the game disc mechanism is trapped ie the game disc cannot be read since the disc cannot eject. Two, the firmware revision has some sort of problem either corrupting the system software or harware issues. I remember reading the net about some machines bricking up via firmware upgrades and unstable firmwares. Please note these are not documented just opionons of the net (fanboys?) and so is not conclusive. Either way it can always be a harware failure issue.
28 - PS3
That is terrible news.
When the machine first started scratching discs, did it render them unplayable, or just mark them?