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Forums - Sony Discussion - Social Media Making it Hard To Gauge Scope of PS4 Technical Difficulties

Social Media Making It Hard To Gauge Scope Of PS4's Technical Difficulties

The PS4 has some problems at launch, that much is clear. Both gaming outlets and fans alike have reported problems with the system ranging from wonky HDMI ports to pulsing lights to crashing PSN and so on and so forth.

But the problem? With apologies to the reliable Wii U, this is the first major console launch now that social media has taken over our society. So while there are very vocal fans upset with their defective PlayStation 4s all over forums, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc, it’s very hard to tell how representative they are of the larger public who owns the system.

The problem here is that a customer with a defective PlayStation 4 is almost certainly going to take to one of their social media platforms to complain about it at launch. A customer with a functional PS4 may do the same, but it’s a much lower chance they’ll helpfully broadcast that their PS4 is working, as that’s not an interesting story. This is if they say anything at all, if they’re too busy playing their new console.

Amazon, for example, has about 600 reviews of the PlayStation 4 launch edition up right now. The console is sitting at about 3 out of 5 stars, not due to middling scores, but because of 320 five star reviews and 260 one star reviews. Nearly all of the one star reviews are complaining about faulty hardware. Does that mean that the PS4 has a 40% failure rate? Of course not. It’s people finding an outlet to vent about their consoles not working (and there is the possibility some of these could be fake reviews from Xbox enthusiasts).

All of this isn’t meant to absolve Sony of any blame for faulty consoles. If there is a problem with their hardware, they should do their best to fix it for free in the quickest way possible. But the fact of the matter is that electronic devices, especially never before released technology, failing to work out of the box is not a unique problem. It happens, and there’s always going to be an “expected” failure rate on something like a new console.

But if 90% of people who get a faulty console are complaining about it online, while only 9% of those with a working console are broadcasting their success stories, it’s going to seem unbalanced and like there’s some massive, widespread issue. And furthermore, with so many online gaming news sites in existence these days, the same stories about defective consoles are being bounced around between hundreds of sites, when really they may be reporting on a relative handful of units.

I’m not saying it’s impossible for there to be widespread problems with the PS4. But it is too early to say if these are just normal launch window issues, or if this is going to turn into some massive RROD fiasco. I’d guess it’s the former, but it just isn’t responsible for anyone to be declaring it the latter at this point.



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I thought it would be nice to shed some light on why we should wait to see how things play out over the next few weeks rather than freaking out about things. We just don't know yet. Sony doesn't know, Media doesn't know, and neither does Xbox and PS fans.  There is problems but wait to see if it is wide spread before arguing about it.  Arguing about things we don't know about won't help out anybody.



But... But... The ps4 is suppose to be the console to buy... The One to Rule them all... Its not suppose to have any launch problems at all... It suppose to have 0% failure rate... Everything is suppose to be perfect...



                  

PC Specs: CPU: 7800X3D || GPU: Strix 4090 || RAM: 32GB DDR5 6000 || Main SSD: WD 2TB SN850

i agree. its a wait and see scenareo



I'm expecting the XBONE to have an even worse failure rate.

Not because either console has problems, but because fanboys will take "revenge" after all these overblown PS4 threads. In the following week if you don't want to be labeled a hypocrite fanboy, follow these steps.

1: Don't say x doesn't have problems, and then later act like console y has problems.

2: Don't act like console x has problems, and then later say y doesn't have problems.

3: Profit



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Well considering ps4n crashed under the huge demand I guess there are a lot more consoles working. I haven't heard of any problems yet from my psn friend list, just a bunch of people playing Resogun and KZ SF with status got ps4!

Nothing has a 0% failure rate. My $3000 flagship Yamaha amp back in 1999 had the rear speakers cutting out, replaced under warranty.



JoeTheBro said:

Yeah, sad to say but the console wars are going to have a real negative effect in the upcoming weeks.



Great article!
People are blowing it way out of proportion.
Big fucking deal about the amazon score, people are fucking whiny little kids these days.
Like rating it low on amazon will really change anything.



JoeTheBro said:
I'm expecting the XBONE to have an even worse failure rate.

Not because either console has problems, but because fanboys will take "revenge" after all these overblown PS4 threads. In the following week if you don't want to be labeled a hypocrite fanboy, follow these steps.

1: Don't say x doesn't have problems, and then later act like console y has problems.

2: Don't act like console x has problems, and then later say y doesn't have problems.

3: Profit

Don't you think this is a bite from the RROD days?

Most of the threads are being opened by Play Station owners anyway.



Out of the three consoles in my household, one was defective. Returned it to Amazon. Probably buy the Infamous bundle instead