MS Journalist Invents PS3 “Yellow Light of Death” Problem
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Sep 19, 2009 20:11 JST
- Tags: Bugs, Marketing, Mass Media, PS3, Sony, Technology, UK, Xbox 360
Sony has sharply criticised a facile BBC report castigating the PS3’s warranty and reliability by claiming it has a “Yellow Light of Death” problem.
However, few can help but notice the lead journalist involved has himself worked for Microsoft, during which time he called the Xbox 360 “perfect” and said he “feels sorry for” PS3 buyers, whilst loudly proclaiming his own impartiality in true BBC style.
The BBC’s “Watchdog” programme, a primetime show which gaudily investigates consumer complaints against companies, aired a report based on 150 complaints it had received about PS3s failing from the so-called “Yellow Light of Death,” the PS3’s generic hardware fault indicator, where it claimed that Sony refused to repair the units for free (as they were out of warranty).
Together with companies hawking their own PS3 repair services and an independent consultancy it then prepared a “technical report” of the problems based on its analysis of 3 failed consoles, one of which had been modified by the owner, which it attempted to confront Sony with.
A publicity stunt involving BBC funded “free” PS3 repairs being offered outside the Sony HQ was then set up, though Watchdog admitted of the paltry 11 units repaired, 4 later failed again.
Sony responds with a lengthy and detailed rebuttal, saying that the scale of the problem is minute:
“SCEUK has run searches of its customer complaints/warranty database to identify the number of reports made to it regarding instances of system shutdown or failure in circumstances where the front panel yellow indicator is illuminated.
The results show that of all PS3s sold in the UK to date, fewer than one half of one per cent of units have been reported as failing in circumstances where the yellow indicator is illuminated.”
The actual number is estimated to be 12,500 units, out of the total UK install base of 2,500,000 units, which is of course difficult to compare to the supposed 54% RRoD failure rate enjoyed by the Xbox 360.
Sony warns the BBC that it is prepared to take “all necessary steps” to protect its brand from slanderous reporting. The BBC has yet to issue a defence.
Most curiously of all, the journalist presenting the report, one Iain Lee, has previously been employed by Microsoft to shill for the Xbox; in one such article published on MSN, entitled “Console Wars: Iain Lee takes sides,” he demonstrates his impartiality:
“You have to feel sorry for everyone that plumped for the PS3 over the 360. Not the Sony diehards that would buy a polished poo if it had the Sony logo on.
…
And don’t get me started on the online services. That’s a whole rant in itself. Suffice to say, one console offers a sublime, beautiful, wondrous, joyful online experience, while the other is guff. I’ll leave it to you to try and work out which is which.
…
Look, I’m not saying I’m never going to play PS3 again, all I’m saying is it’s going to take something pretty special to get me to try and find the controllers and start up the thing.
…
Firstly, the 360 came out and is as close to perfect as you can get. Don’t get me wrong, I may be in the employ of Microsoft to write this column, but there is no way I’m taking dirty money.”
Who would ever think such a thing.
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I would call that the Yellow Light of Hope since it only really appears when someone tampers with the PS3 system.
^Angry German Kid much??
^eh i thought u were...
^Heinrich, iz zat u?
^+1
^+2
^_^
"I wanna play uNReAL TOuRnAmeNT!!!!!!"
To be honest my PS3 YLOD on me. However, I can't 100% say what you said is untrue though. Seeing as I had bought my original PS3 unit used(60g). My new PS3 Slim is still good for now. Using it to watch HD pron right now.
I actually got a Yellow light on my PS3 before, back around the itme when I first got it.
I hit the power switch on the back, waited a couple minutes and turned it back on, and it's been working fine ever since.
Weird.
in my whole gaming life, my Xbox360 and PS3 never fail me
I guess I don't live with bad luck
>Using it to watch HD pron right now
YOU'RE WINNER
another useful thing the ps3 is for
Calling it the yellow light of death is funny actually. Because thats ripping off the blue screen of death, and the red ring of doom microsoft had. A dude who had worked for microsoft is using terms people used to make fun of their products to make fun of another product, while I consider it a piece of junk, is a working piece of junk that I've never heard being bricked before this.
Yellow Light of Hope FTW!! lol
Oh so it's a yellow light now? Last time I read this, it was an orange light o' doom.
Then again, I was pretty tired.
Also, did I mention how outright laughable this is?
If you are in the employ of Microsoft, you are taking dirty money.
If you are in the employ of Sony, you are taking Microsoft's money to make the same game on both consoles.
+9001
Quoted for truth.
make the same game better on the PS3*
make the same game have inferior graphics than the 360*
make the same games that people can ACTUALLY play WHENEVER they want, not with the console disappearing from homes for repair/replacement all the time.
Make the same game available for all known devices with the ability to play games, be it in 3D or 2D.*
*cough*
That includes mobile phones as well.
You know, xbox 360 owners should just buy two of them. At least that will lower the chances that they'll be out a console when they inevitably RRoD.
Then again, with a 54% fail rate, there's still a decent chance you'd end up sending out both at the same time...
That 54% is a load of crap. Engadget did a report on that, and got back with a failure rate of only 30% range... I think it was 34% if I'm not mistaken. But I'd rather have 3 years instead of 1 year of warranty.
Just like their are dirty paid Microsoft workers, there are dirty paid Sony fans / workers. You can't have one without the other, greed is everywhere.
Where I live, I have a 5-year warranty no matter which company I buy from. I'd rather have that...
Jasper chip 360's have a failure rate of 4%. Jasper chips were introduced late 2008.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6216691.html?tag=result;title;0
That is a more reasonable number and considering the chart, we can easily tell that when Microsoft changed chips failure rate went down.
2006 360's failure rate is almost 100%.
But how much 360 Jasper chip consoles have been sale since then? and not all the 360 was having that Jasper chip... only the Elite Edition till recently... and It have somes RedRingsDeath too...
i worked for MS tech support for the 360 for 2 years and out of every 8 calls coming in about 6 of them were for 3 red lights. this was for 2 years straight after release. and i still have friends that work there and they say it's no better now than it was, if anything it's gotten worse. the other calls were, BTW for either canceling a live account, or some other general complaint, whining about something, trying to snipe free swag, or just prank calls. mostly for canceling accounts though.
Anon paid by Sony, I guess?
Sure, I don't care.
The only thing that Microsoft made that hasn't failed my buddies and myself was....Omg, I can't remember. Oh wait, there was never one.
Sony as well, has failed me at points of time in my life.
2 years ago, when I bought my first PSP, it dropped a second time and totally bricked on me. When I sent it for repairs, they called me up and said it woulda cost 250 bucks just to fix it and advised me to buy a new one instead...
Fuck, now I hate both Sony and Microsoft.
I'm surprised it took so long, nobody I know has liked Sony since their rootkit music bullshit.
Make the same game without sex on the PS3
*fixed*
so true
I like this guy.
The only way I can think of screwing up hardware with the PS3 is if you screwed up putting in a new hard drive. And honestly its pretty straight forward for the average person :\
Journalist for Microsoft ? What is that ? Is Microsoft a Press Agency now ?
It is now the age of the internet, if that "yellow light of death" was such a problem, sites like Digg, Sankaku, Kotaku and every other geeks sites would have it on their front pages every week, as it was the case with the RROD.
The saddest thing about it, though, is that Lee guy : can he look at his face in the mirror every morning and still call himself a journalist ?
People, they have no shame...
stupid anon is stupid
Yep, the age of the internet. Why don't you bother using it? Didn't you even bother googling "yellow light of death"? The YLOD has been around for quite a while already so that journalist certainly didn't make up anything.
indeed Anon#2, stupid Anon's are stupid.
as for googling stuff, did YOU bother to even read THIS VERY ARTICLE and reading what the problem with the report is? Or read the anon's actual comment, before knee-jerking to defense force mode, where he never said the YLOD isn't real, he said that its clearly not as big an issue as Lee tries to make it out to be. which from a lack of anecdotal evidence (versus say...the RRoD) to a plethora of consumer reports which claim otherwise about the PS3s fail rate. its would seem to be true that any claim of a consistent systemic flaw is way off base.
on to the real issue of the article since some don't seem to get it.
I bashed this BBC article in another thread, so i'll be fair and defend it once. its not exactly true to say Lee "invented" the YLOD. It IS a known thing to occur. Sony even acknowledges that, contrary to frequent claims of 360 fanboys (that only MS admits their faults and Sony only hides things under the rug). Read Sony's statements, they acknowledge it occurs.
What Sony also says however is that its a rare isolated event, an isolated event that BBC and Mr. Lee used quite obvious selection bias to pick out and exaggerate, to then in turn claim there is some consistent systemic flaw with PS3s that Sony is trying to hide.
thats the issue here. its a sensationalist hit piece designed to make the anomaly look like the rule (something we gamers should be used to the media doing). the fact that its a sensationalist piece crafted by an openly biased MS employee only makes it even less credible.
In short, Sony is butthurt.
Right on the nail.
Just to add onto that point. Most big companies would actually pay to silence critics who actually found out about certain details they do not want the public to know.
Being in that industry before and being one who has been told to "shut up" on a certain topic.
There have never been free press in the gaming world. It is where whoever willing to dump in the most money who gets their game/toy in the spotlight.
that there is the "yellow light of piracy/tampering", not "death"... this is just some 360 fag starting a flame for the ps3 tards
That 360 fag should just go do us all a favour and kill himself.
I'd rather have the opprtunity to kill him, instead.
Leave some for me please =D
yeah me too. I really want to kill that bastard/fanboy
He doesn't even know what he's talking about
Well if this ain't the pot calling the kettle black...
This is so utterly sad. All of you should just quietly hang yourselves and thus save the gene pool.
too late, already taken care of.
Wouldn't it be better to just kill BOTH fanboy groups so we can enjoy our consoles without all the ranting and flaming?
The The only thing the 360 does well is online play(with 13 year-olds) and bribing games away from the PS3.