basically this happens with everything, my PS3 broke like.. half a year after it ran out of warranty (1 year warranty so its not rly shortly after running out), Sony still fixed both time it died for free though so the killswitch loses them money :P

I actually know for a fact products aren't made to last forever.. becuase if they were, you would never sell another..

Microsoft has taken steps to improve the 360 situation though. ie. Falcon chipset 360s are cooler-running than the early models and Jasper chipsets are much cooler than that. I was very aware of RRoD when I bought the 360 but these are some of the reasons why I felt the 360 was a less risky purchase: 3 year RRoD and e74 warranty (the two biggest problems with the 360. And I knew that installing to the hard drive fully would minimize chance for DVD drive failure) vs. just 1 year standard warranty for PS3. Replacement Arcade (worst case scenario since you can keep your old HDD) = $200, Replacement PS3 (at the time) = $400. And I was aware that the Falcon chipset ran cooler (not as well as the very cool running Jasper obviously but I didn't want to bloody wait any longer to upgrade to this gen).

While I wouldn't say there is a kill switch, I might belive that both Sony and Microsoft used Terhmal paste that they knew would wear out just around the time warrenties will expire causeing RROD and YLOD. The thought would be hey we'll know exactly what the problem will be so it'll be an easy fix and w'll spend about $1.00 fixing it while charging the owner 200 to have it replaced.

It's a pretty common game in the industry, I worked for Xerox in the early 90's and they would put these super soft rollers in that wore out after just a few thousand copies.  They clearly didn't have to use the super soft ones as the ones deeper inside the machines used harder materials and accomplished the exact same function. The purpose of the soft rollers was to force people to need a service contract which was where the real money was for Xerox at the time. Basically put  $0.10 rollers that wear out really fast someplace really easy to repair so the service tech's don't have to spend a lot of time there while forcing people to buy a contract... text book sleazy buisness.

Wow, kill switches eh? Maybe they need to keep telling everyone about their 10 year plan for everything if the PS3 is somehow exempt.

TVs = 10 year plan!
VAIO = 10 year and one day plan!
Stereo = 10 year and 3 month plan!

etc.

ZOMG, me too!!!!

TIS A CONSPIRACY!!  

Electrical devices break, get your government to improve consumer rights Japan.

Japan has everything we do in a more extreme way.

Even fanboys.

Atleast they dont have a killswitch in the PS3 because they lose money with every PS3 it would be contra-productive for them.

Kinda makes you wonder about the YLOD. Suspicious.

has to be one of the dumbest articles i ever read. i own sony products some domestic (bought here in the U.S) some imported and not once have they broken after the warranty expired and are still working properly. im surprise MS xbox 360 sold 1.5 million with its 64% failure rate but yet they are so skeptical of sony products? my arse lol.