Console Failure Rates – Should We Really Panic?

Codec Moments looks into the engineering side of console reliability, the historical failures from the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation, and examines whether we should really be worried about the failures reported on the PS4 so far.

[for we are many]

Yes.

[devwan]

No.

[Evil_Abed]

maybe

[Utalkin2me]

My main concern is the he lumped "Historical Failures" from PS3 and 360. Only one historical failure in that sentence.

[Parapraxis]

Historical Failures, just means from the past. Nothing to do with the actual amount. All previous gen consoles would have "historical" failure rates. You are seeing hyperbole where there is none.

Had they said "historically high", that would be a different story.

[mikeslemonade]

One year warranty out of the box and to extend it to a total of 4 years you just need to pay $49.99. Not necessary to opt to $59.99 unless you travel with it.

[Parapraxis]

Some people need to go back to grade school.

[Utalkin2me]

@Parapraxis

Maybe you do not understand the meaning of "Historical Failure", Try googling it then come back to comment.

[Parapraxis]

Sorry kiddo, you are wrong, in this case "historical" means past. Not the other meaning where "historical" would mean it's famous position in history, or landmark occurrence.

Ie:

Wii made an historical impact with it's introduction of the wiimote.
VS
Wii was historically, the 7th generation console from Nintendo.

https://www.google.ca/searc...

https://www.google.ca/searc...

But I will say your understanding of the English language IS a historical failure. (along with quite a few of the readers here)

Words can have multiple meanings, and in the case of the article where they are looking at data, facts and figures, they are looking at the historical data from last gen.

[Thehyph]

Oh, dear.

Have we succumbed to semantic policing?

[SolidStoner]

I think.. most of these faults could easily be fake.. made by MS or fanboys.. all that will happen when xbox one comes out... only time will tell whats really going on... now bad and good news pop up everywhere randomly... and whats real and whats fake.. cant really tell.. power of the internet.. everything about everything from everybody!

[Derekvinyard13]

YES! would you guys buy a car if it had a high percentage failure rate? If anything has a failure rate , that is a bad thing.

[Ezz2013]

"" If anything has a failure rate , that is a bad thing. ""

so what you saying is that you never bought any Electronic Device in your entire life ?! because every single device ever made have failure rate

also 2000 or even 5000 bricked console out of 1,000,000+ console
is pretty damn low rate
i think it's even less than 1%

[colonel179]

"if it had a high percentage failure rate?"

Do you have a source stating the PS4 has a high failure rate?

This is just an overreaction just because the PS4 is the new stuff. If it was the Xbox One, the headlines would be: "Red Ring of Death all over again, MS is doomed"!

People need to have a little of common sense!

Edit: Also, do you even realize how many iPhones and iPads are defective when they release? It's just that the gaming media is so lame, that like to overreact and exaggerate about everything, just for hits.

[static5245]

Actually Cars fail quite often. Even straight off the lot. Just like in Fight Club, someone goes out and they figure out to see if the failure is worth the companies attention.

And honestly if you knew the acceptable failure rate of cars, by your logic, you should be pretty scared every time you hop in a car.

Happy Driving

EDIT: just to give you a idea these are failure rates from 2007. Using 20,000 new cars of each company were tested

Ford Focus 18%
Mini Coop 20%
VW Golf 19.2%

Just a example

[Ausbo]

no. Playstation is less than .4% and microsofts will be low too. (assuming they learned from RROD).

New electronics are never perfect. They have a warranty, so don't fret.

[Thatguy-310]

As long as my console isn't malfunctioning I'm fine. I bought one for me and one for my brother and both work. I feel bad for those that got the short end of the stick but I'm doing great playing Battlefield 4 and Killzone ;)

[for we are many]

High failure rate is a cause of panic, be it in a console, electronics, cars, plumbing etc. What we are seeing with the ps4 launch and all the reports, videos and bad hardware reviews from verified buyers on Amazon is alarming to say the least, not only failures out of the box but also loud noises as well as the loudest fan and disk sound ever in a home console, slow interface and system overheating in as low as 2 hours of playing time is unheard of in a console, and in the face of all that you have the big corporate VG "media" websites like IGN along with blind fanboys executing what looks like The BIGGEST ORGANIZED DAMAGE CONTROL OPERATION in the history of this infantile business, instead of admitting that the system was rushed and that sony seemed to use low quality manufacturing process to reduce the cost as they often do and that they need to act to alleviate this problem, they are trying to find excuses; it may be relatively easy to damage control bad reviews of the hyped launch titles and to dismiss them as opinions which I find fine, you should enjoy whatever you like even if the scores are low, it doesn't matter at least to me, But to come and try damage controlling Hardware failures!! that's too much of either being a money fueled corporate shell or a blind Fanboy. Imagine if it was M$ or Nintendo, then you will begin to understand the primitive mentality of most people involved with videogames on a manufacturer, media and consumer level.

[static5245]

Most Consoles had failure.
NES faulty spring.
Xbox Disc read error
PS2 Faulty lens
360 RRoD
PS3 YLoD
WII U It was actually Nintendo who unintentionally bricked quite a few consoles

[for we are many]

1-Not as major as we have here.
2-other "failures" were admitted by everyone including manufacturer and solutions were swift.
3-This time it's Damage-Controlled to epic proportion by the media, manufacturer and blind fanboys, I doubt if someone pays 400$ ends up with malfunctioning console is happy to damage control unless he's a blind fanboy.
4-Look all over the internet and see the schism between disappointed purchasers with failing ps4s and corporate media and fanboys trying to damage control these major problems, while ridiculing MS mostly and to lesser extent try to downplay Nintendo's well known hardware reliability standards.

[JasonKCK]

The only people who should have a problem are those affected. I say no need for panic, I'm sure Sony will get those peoples PS4 fixed. Honestly I have had had more problems with some of the hardware on my PC than I ever had with consoles. Do people have a right to get angry or be annoyed? sure they do after all they just dropped hundreds on something that doesn't work.

[MRMagoo123]

best part of the article is this "To conclude this article, the only thing I can say is things aren’t looking disastrous for the PS4 yet, and the perceived high level of failures looks to be normal at this stage, and is probably exacerbated by the level of media connection we have now versus 7 years ago. It’s so easy for us to Tweet, Facebook and Blog all our bad news, and by nature it’s the thing we all latch on to when we read it. We’ve got an Xbox One launch in 6 days and there will be console failures there too. These will make the headlines alongside the PS4 numbers, and most likely set off a fanboy argument over who’s the most/least reliable" imo, the xbone fanboys really need to lay off the failure rate(which is below normal acceptable amounts) because it will be the same exact thing on the xbone day one and because the fanboys made such a big thing out of this, the xbone launch will be even more under the microscope to point out every single problem encountered.

[Sci0n]

yea and just like how the X1 fans trolled the PS4's 0.4% failure rate I know the sony fans are waiting to pounce back at them. It is actually pretty pathetic for both parties to antagonize each other over hardware failure. I do find it ironic as hell that out of all people xbox fans have the nerve to troll other fans about console failures when the early adopters experienced it first hand on the 360. I was a early 360 adopter and I was in the microsoft customer service threads reading all the fans cry there hearts out over there 360 consoles repeatedly failing. It was quite a disaster. I hope for nothing but the best regarding the X1's launch regarding console durability.

[Majin-vegeta]

Hate to admit it.But I will be one of them.

[Sci0n]

im going to let go of the revenge factor vegeta. This PS4 console is too great for me to stoop to such a low level of antagonizing X1 fans back over console failures. Let them be bitter by themselves.

[Thehyph]

Amen, brother.

Anyone who wishes ill will to the extent of a hardware failure on another is no gamer. I feel for the few out there who've had problems. When I got my ps4 Friday night, I was almost losing my poop because the PSN wouldn't work. Took a breather, (cigarette) waited a while, and then everything fell into place. Smooth sailing since.

[GrandpaSnake]

If you cant take it, dont dish it out.

[xDHAV0K24x]

Whats xbone?

[neocores]

yes BECAUSE 0.04% IS SOO BAD WOW IM SOO SCARED

[Ausbo]

its actually .4% according to ign.

http://www.ign.com/articles...

its still a non-issue though

[Ausbo]

why the disagrees. I state a fact and back it up with a source.

Wow.

[Death]

It looks like they took the amount of reported PS4's and applied them to the Taco Bell winners. Failure rate is determined during the duration of warranty, not just from defects out of the box.

[OmegaShen]

No, if only if its only 0.04%. No there is no reason, now if its like the 360's fail rate that was 54%. Then its time to panic (but only the company is the one that needs to panic).

[strigoi814]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?...

here is a sample how fanboyism can add panic

[SuperBlur]

i'd much rather my console does not fail me but if it has to fail , i would much rather my console brick during the warranty period.

yes i am looking at you xbox 360 and your rrod'ing just couple days after warranty expired. -_-

[XxGOWxX]

FYI they gave you an extra year or 2 of warranty because of the red ring. also if your device fails within the month after warranty has ended you can still push for a warranty claim.

[Jdoki]

The problem I had was that my 360 had RRoD after the warranty ended but before they had acknowledged the widespread problem and put the extension in place.

In the UK it was much harder to claim after the fact than in the US. I eventually got fed up with the back and forth exchanges with MS and never got my warranty repair money back.

When my second 360 also failed I got that repaired for free. But it was still a first generation unit, and that eventually failed too.

MS need to earn back my trust.

[SuperBlur]

nope , they pretty much slapped the door on my face (theoretically speaking), denying it was their shitty hardware who was built to fail.

I'll eventually buy a xbox 1 when they release a kinectless slimmer version bundled with games and bigger hdd.

[chobit_A5HL3Y]

you should never be panicked at launch for anything. any decent company will have a warranty that you can take advantage of to resolve your issue. being pissed off is another thing.

[XxGOWxX]

For those going on about .04 or .4 failure rate you should probably stop. the only company that knows the rate is sony seeing as they would have the exact numbers of the failing consoles based on support calls and returns to retailers.

Until someone releases the official rate stop freaking out.
Sadly about 5% is considered ok in the electronics business.
It would suck being in that category though.

PS4 fans should be more concerned about the firmware. this is something sony directly controls and its buggy and missing features. To me this is a bigger issue considering theyve had years (assuming they didnt rush the ps4..) to make it stable and fully featured.

[neocores]

Lol its .4% already been confirmed

[XxGOWxX]

Not by sony. Dont believe everything IGN or other random net sites tell you. Their whole business is clicks and theyll make a story about anything to get them. they just guessed that number based on the pre launch failures reported around the net.

Wait for an official stat from sony.

[Trekster_Gamer]

They rushed the whole thing. Cheap parts, and Sony has a crappy service department, that doesn't help.

[HappyWithOneBubble]

Oh no I'm about to panic. 'Runs to panic room.' No wait this is the bathroom. 'Takes a dump.'

[MasterCornholio]

-And plays PS4 while on the toilet-

Nexus 7 2013

[worldwidegaming]

As long as you can replace it, its all good!
Should cost Sony a pretty penny! maybe gamestop can
make em REcharged versions!

[allyc4t]

If this was happening to the Xbox One you guys would be all over it.

[classic19]

no ppl, you should not panic until 6 are so months in to a new console release. ppl the x1/ps4 will have some problems, sony will get things right. i don't see a x1/ps4 red ring of death this gen. it's just new launch technology being technology, it happens.

[mydyingparadiselost]

There's not much to the current failure rate but these things usually show up over time and not right at launch. How long did RRoD take to become a major issue? MS was fixing launch consoles and onwards that died even after the warranty expired because the problem could take time to show itself. For now these numbers are fine, the real issue is 6 months to a year from now when the consoles have been stressed, left in standby for months and gone through the general abuse that all electronics go through. If it becomes an issue later then so be it but right now way too many people are jumping the gun on the 'failure rate' stories.
OT- Also, I'm tired of console review scores. Same idea, jumping the gun and rating something that takes at least a year to mature is dumb. Look at the console, give the pros and cons, talk about likes/dislikes but stop putting a meaningless number on a device that clearly can't be rated. I mean, why not just rate the PS3 and 360 perfect 10's for game library, low hardware failure rate (now at least) and still impressive graphics and rate next gen low for a lack of titles and strange new complications. It just makes gamers look dumb when arbitrary numbers are slapped on everything :/

[g-nome]

If my ps4 is going to fail , I hope it does so out of the box rather than down the line.

[Trekster_Gamer]

When people see how great the XB1 launch goes compared to PS4, they will know that a true next gen not rushed piece of awesome hardware that is the XBOX ONE has arrived ready to rock!!

[Omegasyde]

Microsoft will be further under the microscope than Sony is.

Even if the failure rates are the same, MS will be scrutinized more.

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

[Mr_Luke]

I'd really like to know how many defective PS4 Sony got to repair and how many were REALLY broken. Working with PCs i have lot of experiences of customers that try the PC once and if it doesn't turn on right away they call my company to get another new one or so... then i get the PC and it works perfectly. Or even better, when they see the VGA they bought sucks, they resend the PC saying it's defective and doesn't work with that motherboard (?!?!?), just to get another one for free. Well, in the PS4 case the thing is a bit different, but i guess the impatience to plug the cable, the wild animal style moves to unpack it, the delivery guy that dropped it on the ground or smashed it against something else could be some of the factors that could ruin an electronic device.... and i'm not even counting the idiotic fanboys that didn't even buy it and post negative reviews (yes, talking about Amazon).
So, why do we have to panic? We could start that when we have the offical numbers (and if they're alarming), for now there are only rumors and crap around the internet. I just hope that, like the other times, my console is perfect when i get it (never had a problem with any console and got them on launch days).

[Omegasyde]

I got a s#!t HDMI cord. I plugged in the one I was using with my PS3 no issues.

I then came to this conclusion as the hdmi cord did not work for my apple TV or PS3.

My hypothesis is that that most of the cords are F'd up and when insert into the hdmi port on ps4, it's bending pins. When I original used the hdmi cord that came with the PS4 it was hard to plug into the hdmi port. Knowing of the "pins" issue, I tried to slide it to work.

Once connected I got the "blinking blue lights" (of doom). After switching out hdmi cord with a KNOWN working one, no issues since then.

[Mr_Luke]

And no problems anymore? If so, glad you solved yours. When i get mine i'll check very well the cord, thanks for the advice ;)

[Omegasyde]

^^^^
It's basic troubleshooting. For instance, if you are still having issues, try swapping the PS4 power cord with the PS3.

....take out the HDD and "snap it back in".
....reset the console to factory settings and try patch again.

Another factor is that people need to consider that "sometimes" boxes get damaged in frieght shipping too.

[Jdoki]

A failure rate of 3% is not unusual in the electronics industry. That means if Sony has sold 1,000,000 consoles, they could expect 30,000 failures.

The amount of noise on the internet about the various PS4 issues, does not seem like 30,000 people to me, or even close. And even if it is then it's an expected margin of failure. If the numbers start hitting 10+% then I think Sony have a problem.

If they hit the levels of 30-50%+ that MS had with the 360, then it could cause significant damage to Sony, especially in their current financial situation.

The problem we have is sites and social media. Web sites are looking for hits and bad news, and social media makes it easy for mob mentality to take over and blow a small non-issue out of all proportion. I'm not saying Sony does, or does not, have a problem - we just need to wait and see.

[Sci0n]

and as a society we are drawn into bad news headlines wether its the people that want to defend and talk common sense or the ones that want to troll by using the kick em while they are down mentality.