Sieanr dead on. Its an engineering issue. The PS2 like the PS1 was poorly designed. Both had issues with their lasers. Sony isn't the first company to have an issue with their consoles design. The original NES wasn't known for its reliability either. The second version of the NES fixed the original's design flaw, the front loading cartridge slot was the source of a lot of the NES' reliablity issues. The 360 has been problematic as well. Overheating seems to be the main culprit with it. The Atari Lynx literally ate batteries, my brother had one and sometimes brand new batteries would not power it up. We'd pop those same batteries in one of our Gameboys or even my Game Gear and have no issues. The only issue I really have is that Sony doesn't seem to to adequately test their products. Its like they design a product on a computer, skip the real word testing, and go straight into manufacturing it. The PS1, PS2, and PSP all had significant issues. Thankfully, thus far, the PS3 has escaped such reliablity problems.

Not had a problem with my PS2 (had it since sept 01) stuffed a 200Gb HD in it. It's only now in the last 6 months it got slower reading blue discs until it couldn't be bothered at all. So I guess I'll have to open it up and move the lazer height adjustment cog 4 clicks clockwise or something. I still have my PS1 which after LOADS of Red Alert link up games decided after about 3 years of service to only read discs at a 30 degree angle (which required a thick book propping up 1 side) We have a 360 in the house which my brother bought... however it gave him the 3 red light salute and had to be returned after only playing on it for 2 months! The only way we could tell something was going wrong with it was when it just decided to 'drop' to the dashboard during different lengths of game play,until it wouldn't load at all. Then die when last turned on. Granted the console was marked March 06 Model so I expected a early production hardware error...

you never should have got the glitchbox360. PS2 since launch still works. PS1 since launch (amazingly) still works. Sony is reknowned for having reliable products, and is consistently voted one of the most reliable electronics companies in the world. http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/sony-laptops-most-reliable http://www.absolutebrand.com/industry_news/news.asp?dismode=article&artid=168 http://news.mobile9.com/webfeed/n/575/

Well yeah, I mean, that said, I've seen many NESs that power flicker or don't read certain cartridges...but things were different back then, and NES is very old. Plus who doesn't enjoy the memory of blowing into the Zelda or Mario Bros/Duck Hunt cartridge until you pass out...nobody that's who!

My PS2 and my cousin's had the disc read error problem, sent mine in once to get it fixed, it worked for like a month and then had the same error. I then looked online and found a tutorial on how to fix it, since then, haven't had any problems.

Never had any Sony product as far as I can remember. My little brother and "gang" of ten or so friends had 5 PS2s between them that they used to play footie games and drink beer with. Apparently all of them have broken from normal use, although from what I saw they did treat the machines like crap.

My PS2 has had to be fixed twice, the only Nintendo console I've ever had a problem with was the NES.

Had problems with a PS1 (had to put it on it's side but eventually even that didn't help and the cd drive failed completely).  I ended up buying another PS1 to replace it. 

Went through two Sony walkmans (I was pissed off because the first one I sent back I paid for the repairs which came to almost as much as a new walkman and yet the thing broke again), second one that broke I just threw out and bought a cd player to replace it.

And one Sony tv 27 inch, the picture became too dim even on the highest brightness. I didn't bother trying to get it fixed since I found a really good deal on another tv and just bought it instead.

Oh and a PS2 my brother gave me about a month ago is having problems.  I think the dvd drive is starting to fail on it (I tried using a dvd cleaner which helped but it sometimes takes 2-3 times to get it to recognize a cd or dvd).  I might try adjusting the laser if it goes completely since it's out of warranty.

I had one Rev3 PS2 just stop working one day after working fine for about 2 years.
Had another PS2 stop working 91days after I bought it.
My PSP starting having button issues about 2 months after I got it.
I had two Sony DVD-RW (different models) last only a year before they just stopped reading DVDs all together.
Had a 32" Sony TV last me only 6 months.

I've only had issues with Sony products with in the last 6 or 7 years, before then I never had any issues with them and they always lasted al very long time.