Sony in court over PS3 firmware bricking allegations

[Zeus]

Sony are up in court, facing charges that their recent firmware updates have caused PS3 consoles to brick and malfunctioning of the Blu-ray drive. This suit is on behalf of all PS3 owners, so it could eventually be a pretty costly one for Sony!

<blockquote>
Now it's Sony's day in court, as last week a pair of PlayStation 3 owners who had their systems bricked by the September 3.0 and 3.01 firmware updates filed suit agianst the company. The two gamers--one from Texas, the other from Iowa--allege that the updates caused PS3s to malfunction, with problems including loss of controller use, malfunction of the Blu-ray drive, and bricking of consoles. When they contacted Sony's customer service representatives, the pair were told that the system failures were coincidental and unrelated to the system update. Furthermore, Sony would charge them a repair fee of $150 in order to fix the systems.

"Defendant's unlawful, unfair, and fraudulent business practices include, but are not limited to, misrepresentations regarding the fitness of the PS3 and software updates, failing to disclose defects in the system and software updates, and refusing to repair PS3 systems free of charge," the suit alleges. It also takes exception to Sony making it so certain software refuses to run until the firmware update is downloaded and installed on the system. </blockquote>

News Source: <A href="http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6239189.html" target="_blank">UK.gamespot</a>

[Retroboy]

this is blx, lol look up the term bricked, it means the firmware isnt installed correctly and the console cant and will not work.

with problems including loss of controller use, malfunction of the Blu-ray drive

this doesnt mean the update will decide to disable pads or stop the drive from working.

on the other hand theyre is a 3rd party pad that we all know of that is not supported with a firmware update but dindt sony say theyll find a fix?

as for the drive then thats down to miss use or something because ive had the same launch console and theryes nothing wrong.

the only way i think this could have happend if the cosnole was actually brick (which obviously sounds not true) is if when the system is installing the update and it says DO NOT TURN OFF! that they did so.

but again, im not 100% sure because i did a update before and had a powercut and my PS3 had a black screen and i selected to restart the system (default settings) and everything was reset to defaults.

[ThreeDog]

this is blx, lol look up the term bricked, it means the firmware isnt installed correctly and the console cant and will not work.

with problems including loss of controller use, malfunction of the Blu-ray drive

this doesnt mean the update will decide to disable pads or stop the drive from working.

on the other hand theyre is a 3rd party pad that we all know of that is not supported with a firmware update but dindt sony say theyll find a fix?

as for the drive then thats down to miss use or something because ive had the same launch console and theryes nothing wrong.

the only way i think this could have happend if the cosnole was actually brick (which obviously sounds not true) is if when the system is installing the update and it says DO NOT TURN OFF! that they did so.

but again, im not 100% sure because i did a update before and had a powercut and my PS3 had a black screen and i selected to restart the system (default settings) and everything was reset to defaults.

I suffered a brick with 3.00 too so don't be so quick to dismiss them, I only turned the power off after a couple of hours of the update being stuck at 16%ish but mine restored theirs didn't. There have been reports every firmware update of bricks happening through the life of the PS3 and there always will be with any device that has a firmware update capability.

You and i may have gotten the restore prompt not everyone does, just because you don't have any problems doesn't mean you're right and they're just idiots that like to turn off their consoles during firmware updates for fun infact if they did this the console would likely be recoverable, I'm more inclined to blame a hardware fault than the actual firmware though but considering the problems 3.0 caused is it so hard to believe sony didn't test their first hybrid firmware properly?

You just need to accept a console can and will brick be it PS3/360/Wii/PSP during an update no matter if the sun does shine out of a companies arse for you, this is after all why high end PC motherboards have dual bios systems.

Also i refer you to: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/07/03/2-40-ps3-update-withdrawn-may-brick-ps3s/1 and suggest you google PS3 update brick, are they all liars that turn off their console during updates too?

[put4558350]

I don't know witch one worse.

Microsoft that make hight rate of rrod on xbox360. but have responsible by extened Warranty to 3 year.

Sony that make low rate of random ylod and bricking. once you get it you have to pay $150 and all your file is gone.

[weeboo]

both of them is worst. id rather to have a working devices, free from problems, and i think no one wants fckn hardware and software problems in their device.

[QrafTee]

I am for extending the warranty to 3-years and making it standard which would force Nintendo to do the same thing.

[DEDDOA]

I don't know, now I'm not doing a whole 360 v PS3 thing here but the comparisson does seem pretty obvious to me. Sony must be viewed as an easy target as the 360 has had far more problems and I can't recall any law suits, threats of them yes, but none getting passed the threat stage. Now I agree that it's not on that a device that has to be updated to work properly should fail while updating, but I don't see how there can be the numbers that make a law suit against sony happen when MS are getting away with it (3 year guarantee or not, you don't sell hardware you know to be faulty as as a faultless piece of equipment as MS seem to do).

Oh well, at least int he long run it will no doubt benefit the rrest of us with PS3's as Sony will hopefully make the updates less frequent and more stable.

[grapeape]

I don't know, now I'm not doing a whole 360 v PS3 thing here but the comparisson does seem pretty obvious to me. Sony must be viewed as an easy target as the 360 has had far more problems and I can't recall any law suits, threats of them yes, but none getting passed the threat stage. Now I agree that it's not on that a device that has to be updated to work properly should fail while updating, but I don't see how there can be the numbers that make a law suit against sony happen when MS are getting away with it (3 year guarantee or not, you don't sell hardware you know to be faulty as as a faultless piece of equipment as MS seem to do).

Oh well, at least int he long run it will no doubt benefit the rrest of us with PS3's as Sony will hopefully make the updates less frequent and more stable.

I dont see how MS is "getting away with it" the difference is that MS has been publicly exposed for problems, caved in and managed to at least try and deal with them, Sony just does like Sony always does and denies the problem until they go to court...in the long run Sony's strategy is probably smarter from a business perspective since they have never had to really settle for much more than a slap on the wrist, but IMHO MS's approach is far more pro-consumer.

[DEDDOA]

I dont see how MS is "getting away with it" the difference is that MS has been publicly exposed for problems, caved in and managed to at least try and deal with them, Sony just does like Sony always does and denies the problem until they go to court...in the long run Sony's strategy is probably smarter from a business perspective since they have never had to really settle for much more than a slap on the wrist, but IMHO MS's approach is far more pro-consumer.

You are right, but it just seems odd to me that MS are getting away with no court cases over a massive issue and Sony are getting taken to court over a comparatively lesser issue (still no less relevant but you know what i mean). Tho that said, I expect it's a bit harder to get a decent case against a company that is openly trying to fix an issue compared to one that outright refuses to aknowledge any problems when there clearly have been.

[Kurdy]

I will buy a ps3 tomorrow..:eek:

[grapeape]

You are right, but it just seems odd to me that MS are getting away with no court cases over a massive issue and Sony are getting taken to court over a comparatively lesser issue (still no less relevant but you know what i mean). Tho that said, I expect it's a bit harder to get a decent case against a company that is openly trying to fix an issue compared to one that outright refuses to aknowledge any problems when there clearly have been.

Didnt mean to sound snarky about it...but last gen Sony's settlement netted millions for a couple of lawyers and a lousy $25 or a free game off a clearance list or half price repair from Sony if you had your reciept....imho gamers got screwed on that one, given the option...i'd take the 3 year warranty.

[ThreeDog]

I don't know, now I'm not doing a whole 360 v PS3 thing here but the comparisson does seem pretty obvious to me. Sony must be viewed as an easy target as the 360 has had far more problems and I can't recall any law suits, threats of them yes, but none getting passed the threat stage. Now I agree that it's not on that a device that has to be updated to work properly should fail while updating, but I don't see how there can be the numbers that make a law suit against sony happen when MS are getting away with it (3 year guarantee or not, you don't sell hardware you know to be faulty as as a faultless piece of equipment as MS seem to do).

Oh well, at least int he long run it will no doubt benefit the rrest of us with PS3's as Sony will hopefully make the updates less frequent and more stable.

Plenty of lawsuits have been filed google '360 lawsuit' the difference is we never learn if they make it to court, if they won/lost infact they just appear vanish completely. Maybe MS agrees to policy changes, maybe MS lawyers run so many rings around the lesser legal teams that funding is sucked dry within a week or two but more likely MS pays them off wraps them up in the tightest NDAs possible and sends them packing.

All that's needed here is for Sony to honor/expand the warranty they offer to all faults, is it really fair that people couldn't get replacements for their BC consoles so soon or that people are being asked to pay 1/4-1/2 of purchase price to get a repair or even be told that the warranty doesn't cover the bd-rom failure. One of them may have a lower failure rate but both are as bad as eachother Sony is following the same path MS did, It's not acceptable from any company.