PS3 Firmware 3.0 Incurs Class Action Lawsuit
A fella from Florida has filed a class action lawsuit against SCEA, claiming that the PS3 3.0 update damaged consoles and that Sony is charging $150 to repair consoles with "sustained hardware damage" resulting from the update:
"Thousands of Sony PS3 video game owners who downloaded a system software update required by Sony found that the update caused their PS3 units to malfunction and actually damaged the hardware on many units."
Sony did acknowledge back in September that the 3.0 update caused freezing in certain games and some controller wonkiness, and followed up with an additional update intended to fix the problem - but lead plaintiff John Kennedy alleges that the second update caused "further problems."
Charges include breach of implied warranty, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, unjust enrichment, and more (I thought those were just normal business practices!). Naturally, no comment yet from SCEA.
Man Files Class Action Against Sony Over Firmware 3.0 Problems [Gamasutra]
tiny dancer
Posted to Miscellany on 5 October 2009
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: class action, firmware, lawsuit, ps3, sony
Maybe this will silence all those "the 360 is too much of a risk for me" guys.
Both are good consoles, but both have their problems.
Recently saw on a British program called Watchdog that the PS3 even has it's own version of the RRoD. Something called the orange line of death or something.
Just proves my point.
I caught that on Watchdog, but bear in mind Watchdog only ever focuses on the negative - for instance, the "yellow light of death" as they nicknamed it, is exceptionally rare. The piece did mention the similarity to the 360's RRoD but didn't include comparative figures, which are readily available (and were posted here on gaygamer a couple of months ago) and highlight the massive disparity between PS3 issues and 360 issues. However, such facts would have put a dampner on Watchdogs doom and gloom approach lol
The overall piece was actually about Sony's response, not the fault itself, although as I said they did leave out figures, implying the issue is far more widespread than it actually is. Sony's response needs a lot of work though - I believe they mentioned microsoft's response to RRoD, but given the enormous scale difference in the issue they HAD to enact a different policy, essentially admiting their hardware was crap. The PS3 failure rate is exceptionally low compared to the 360. Sony just needs to get its customer relations sorted. The PS3 is still the more reliable console out of the two, a sensationalist TV spot doesn't change the hard facts.
Here's a youtube link to the Watchdog piece http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRyRxKlo9-o
Also, Sony posted an official rebuttle of the Watchdog piece, reprinted in full here:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/sony-tackles-bbc-over-ps3-failure-report
Put simply, the Watchdog article was biased, full of incosistancies, factually inaccurate and misleading. Sony have good grounds for a lawsuit, imo.
I think logically if anyone is going to be biased it's Sony.
Anyway, not gonna make it into an argument, because that isn't what this is about. I own a PS3 and I like it.
My point is that it and Sony aren't the golden child that many 360 haters make it out to be.
Both have faults and both have strengths.
Well, the letter for the most part offers a lot of valid points - the 'free' techs featured on Watchdog are not normally free and their 'cure' costs only £25 less than Sony's and doesn't include shipping costs. Once those are included, the fees are similar. The letter makes the valid point that these people, who stand to make money from people using their services NOT Sony's are far from independant and unbiased, they WANT Sony's business so have a vested interest in villifying Sony. You must admit that is a valid point raised by Sony, one of several.
Sony's out of warranty policies are no different than those of any other electronics company, with the exception of M$ofts extended 3 year warranty (on RRoD only, 1 year on any other fault). Watchdog are trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. There were 12,500 faulty PS3's from launch, in a userbase of 2.5 million. That is well within acceptable rates within the electronics industry. In fact it's an incredible success.
The Sony rebuttle contains several other valid points that are factual and require no bias, I heartily recommend you read it rather than simply bash Sony and the PS3.
I don't 'hate' the 360, I'm just appalled by it's failure rate. M$oft rushed something out to beat it's competitor and it shows - a 50%+ failure rate is shocking. If the 360 was reliable I would have bought one of those, however it wasn't and I can't afford two next gen consoles, so I have the PS3. I bought it for reliability and have not been disappointed.
I'm not trying to fight, just pointing out that the Watchdog story is one of the shoddiest pieces of consumer "reporting" I've ever seen. They even claimed the PS3 costs £400, which on day of airing hadn't been true in the UK for over 12 months. Retail price on day of airing was £249 and had been for over a week. If they can't get that basic a fact right what hope is there for the rest of the story?
The entire piece has been ridiculed across the gaming industry as being ill-informed, poorly researched and at best disingenuous and at worst out right false.
On the topic of the article, I'm really not sure what to make of this guy's case. I fail to see how a software update can physically damage the HARDWARE. Unless it caused the CPU to run so hot it burned out I don't see what it could have done. I think he's exagerating his claims by a massive degree.
Im so glad that I finally have an outlet to express my love of men and videogames at the same time. You dont know how many times I have been playing a sports video game with my straight friends and wanted to say how hot the players are but couldnt. But now i can, thank you so much.