Word had emerged, not long ago, about the “blinking blue lights” that were showing up on the new game system. And indeed, Sony came out with a troubleshooting guide designed to help users work around the problem, including that users turn off the PS4 completely, then hold in the power button for at least seven seconds before restarting. Users are also encouraged to disconnect the AC power cord, as well as inspect the system for what are called “visibly damaged parts.”
This particular newsy bit had made the rounds online, showing up at Polygon and Joystiq and GamingBlend, but it was GamingBlend that really caught my attention. Not four hours prior, the same guy who wrote about the blue light fix for GamingBlend—William Usher, by name—had also put together an article about the PS4's red light issues, along with overheating. Usher related that the two issues may have a similar root cause, particularly in the form of lead in thermal grease. There was a third article, also on GamingBlend and also by Usher, that points to a substantial number of one-star reviews on Amazon for the PlayStation 4 launch edition, and indeed, though the average score is four stars, the reviews in general are running about two to five one star to five stars. Essentially, for every one star review, there are nearly three five star reviews, and the one star reviews tend to say the same thing: dead. There are variants, of course—broken, defective, dead on arrival—but the concepts seem to be running about the same throughout the mix. At one point, the ratio was nearly one to one, with Usher's article including a screen shot showing 239 five star reviews and 205 one star reviews.
That's distressing, and frankly, it leaves me more than a little unnerved about this Friday's launch of the Xbox One. Is this now the “new normal,” of launch with massive defects? While the Xbox 360 had its share of problems—most of us remember the Red Ring of Death—as did the PS3, it's getting to the point where buying a console at launch just isn't a good idea any more. New hardware, fixes for old issues, and a slim number of games at launch do somewhat suggest the value of waiting.
Still, as interesting as this by itself is, it will be even more so to see how the rest of the Sony units fare, and see what kind of numbers the Microsoft breed will post next. With the console war now about to be joined in full earnest, mechanical failures may well hobble some breeds' aspirations right at the starting gate.
