PlayStation 4 Console Thread

[Mortis]

Well mine is paid for so no matter what I'm in the reports of hardware issues are worrying but I'd like to give it a week to let the dust settle a bit and see how things look. As others have said - the folk with issues are always the voices you hear - if your new toy works you should be too busy playing it to be arsed to type up a review on amazon

[MikeF]

You are always going to get hardware failures with mass made electronic devices, especially with the number that must have been produced. I fully expect to hear similar stories next Friday when the Xbox One is released.

I won't be cancelling my PS4 pre order, the 29th still can't come quickly enough for me

[Minion]

Mine was on for 8 hours last night and no signs of overheating at all. Was no warmer than my 360 slim. Same for my friends. Biggest issue we all had was PS Network being a pain yesterday. Fine today though.

Thanks Ollie this is good news. I especially liked your BF4 impressions as BF4 is what made me pre-order this baby. I hope you enjoy your PS4

[Fusty Gusset]

Mine was on for 8 hours last night and no signs of overheating at all. Was no warmer than my 360 slim. Same for my friends. Biggest issue we all had was PS Network being a pain yesterday. Fine today though.

Many thanks for that. Really good to hear something positive. I'd never cancel my preorder, but I was definitely losing some of the excitement factor courtesy of Todays reports on N4G and the like.

Edit: My buddy's now saying it won't even turn on

[Mitchell]

Because EA. Battlefield 3 is still £59.99 for PS3 lol. The PC version of BF4 is £55 on Origin. Or £85 with the DLC. They're mental.

BF4 is $59.99 (£37) on the US PSN.

[Uzi]

You won't get charged tax on a US account set up with a tax free state. Even when you do, it is rarely as high as 20%

[womblingfree]

But that's before VAT.

How do they work out State specific VAT for download delivery??

[SMD]

How do they work out State specific VAT for download delivery??

You have to give your address on sign up (notice the loophole).

[Wickedkitten]

You realise they have to get from China to the UK first? If they're actually so fragile that a bit of jostling in transit causes them to brick (which I doubt is the issue personally), then the effect of the final stage of the journey is going to be negligible.

Not going to say that this is going to be the case for everyone, but from what I've read, especially on the Amazon site, its not the China leg that is the problem. People are saying their consoles shipped from Amazon directly in a box that didn't have any packing material in it whatsoever and they didn't even properly fit into some of them which is utterly fucked up on Amazon's part.

[Dudley]

BF4 is $59.99 (£37) on the US PSN.

Although 20% of £37 is not £23. It's about £7.50.

So it's £43 vs £60 without any difference in costs whatsoever (there's no shipping of physical goods or import duty etc).

[gospvg]

I actually kind of wish we did not have a 2 week delay giving me time to think, which might result in me cancelling the console.

[bradigor]

Mine was on for 8 hours last night and no signs of overheating at all. Was no warmer than my 360 slim. Same for my friends. Biggest issue we all had was PS Network being a pain yesterday. Fine today though.

Did you get yours from Amazon?

[jonamok]

Agree the two week delay is a huge opportunity for lots of people in Europe/Australia to have a little rethink. While the upside for Sony of the launch gap is small (easier logistics, a few more late preorderers), the downside of mediocre launch reviews and inevitable early hardware failures going social-media-supernova is a lot bigger. Should have done their utmost for a simulaunch in Europe with slightly reduced stock per region if need be.

Gonna be an interesting two weeks.

[yashiro]

http://www.twitch.tv/pcper/b/479845930 if you want to see how the PS4 innards slot together. I'd say most faults would come from either the software side or faulty disk drives. It's a very simple machine.

[NecroMorrius]

BF4 is $59.99 (£37) on the US PSN.

Yes it is. EA generally do their currency conversion by changing the dollar sign to a pound/euro sign and cackling. Very old news for PC digital folk.

[footle]

Badly packaged boxes != bent hdmi pins.

[OllieCJBowen]

Did you get yours from Amazon?

Gamestop.

[Wickedkitten]

Badly packaged boxes != bent hdmi pins.

I''m not saying it does, people are having issues other than non working hdmi ports though

[Chooch]

Come to think of it, how did 3DS/Wii U/Vita fare at launch?

Now the above are simpler devices and - I think - sold less at launch, but did they get any notable hit from Amazon ratings and Twitter complaints due to broken launch units? I only ask as these devices all launched during the age of widespread social media, and might give an idea of how this effects what we're hearing.

3DS had issues with loose hinges. The Wii U arrived dead for some people, including a few on this forum.

Both issues were blown up by forums/social media not sure about Amazon reviews.

[NecroMorrius]

Badly packaged boxes != bent hdmi pins.

Nothing to do with bent pins. The problem is a piece of metal that's meant to sit flush with the plastic that can stop the HDMI cable being inserted all the way in.

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet but the number of units reported to Sony is about 0.4%, which they describe as entirely in line with expectations for a new product launch.

[toythatkills]

This is one of the reasons I buy from Amazon; rock solid customer support and returns policy. I'd be truly annoyed if I get a DOA console, but not having to argue the toss about my statutory rights, trek into the town for the privilege, or foot the bill for return costs is invaluable.

Only problem with this is that you're without a PS4. However good amazon's customer service is, they're not going to have a replacement to send to you!

I reckon sending it back to Sony is the way to go, for sure. You'll get a (probably) working unit a few days later and it's not going to be long before they announce something like free PSN credit for anyone affected as a goodwill gesture.

[Superunknown]

Only problem with this is that you're without a PS4. However good amazon's customer service is, they're not going to have a replacement to send to you!

I reckon sending it back to Sony is the way to go, for sure. You'll get a (probably) working unit a few days later and it's not going to be long before they announce something like free PSN credit for anyone affected as a goodwill gesture.

Oh for sure, IF they've got any stock to send; a few people on the PlayStation forums were being quoted five weeks by Sony - I'd rather get my money back and then re-buy in that situation rather than burn five weeks of the manufacturers warranty.

[Superunknown]

I think all you have to do to see how big a problem is see how it stacks up against other console launches. Was there this much noise at the WiiU launch. Or the Xbox 360 launch. Then you're a little closer to seeing how big the problem is in comparison to one we have already experienced and had time to look back on.

I remember seeing the odd report here and there about WiiU but nothing on THIS scale.

All the previous issues have had the same "people only complain and the ones who had an ok experience stay quiet" thing going for them too so I think it's fair to compare that way. Let's see what it's like in a week. Let's see what Sony say.

To be fair, social media usage has exploded in the eight(?) years since the 360 launched. People are far more likely to go online now and complain than they were then. That's not to say there aren't a lot of genuine cases, but without knowing the overall volumes of units in use it's far too early to say how significant a proportion those unfortunate people represent.

[NecroMorrius]

Yeah, I would go to Sony myself.

Been looking through the reviews on Amazon. Many of the reviews are unverified (i.e. didn't buy it) and many of the negative verified ones are complaining that they didn't get it on time. The legitimate "bricked" ones come up first because a certain demographic has been on there voting them all as "most useful"

The amount of one-star unverified "The PS4 is bricked wish I got an Xbox" style reviews is pretty high.

[Superunknown]

Ah, Amazon reviews, they're not exactly the best barometer. You don't have to purchase and can 'review' before it's even released. The reviews for games pre-release always amuse:

"This game looks like it'll be amazing, 5 stars".

"This game is on console X which sucks. Therefore this game will suck, 1 star".

[toythatkills]

NeoGAF, getting to the heart of the issues that really matter - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=717281

[OllieCJBowen]

Problems playing BF4 according to my mates this afternoon. Connection issues on everything bar TDM. Set up twitch to see how well it works and it's so easy and seamless. I don't know how often this would be used but it's provided some amusement for now.

http://www.twitch.tv/olliecjbowen

The wife is playing Lego right now. I'll try and get something else on later.

Edited November 16, 2013 by OllieCJBowen

[Mitchell]

But that's before VAT.

Never paid VAT? Buy a $50 PSN card for $50 (whatever the exchange rate is at that time), spend $50. I imagine most people with a US PSN account are the same.

The only time I've overspent, has been because of an uplift in price from the middleman.

[rafaqat]

Yeah, I would go to Sony myself.

Been looking through the reviews on Amazon. Many of the reviews are unverified (i.e. didn't buy it) and many of the negative verified ones are complaining that they didn't get it on time. The legitimate "bricked" ones come up first because a certain demographic has been on there voting them all as "most useful"

The amount of one-star unverified "The PS4 is bricked wish I got an Xbox" style reviews is pretty high.

Yeah, I think some of the amazon reviews should be taken with a pinch of salt. If that was the only place reporting problems I'd be more than happy to think the few hardware issue reviews were being upvoted by fanboys but we've got a fair few different sources reporting problems. It's not just one problem either. Blu-Ray drives not working and bit of metal on HDMI ports could be maybe blamed on crappy shipping (why this hasn't affected any other console shipped by them I don't know). Not sure how the overheating can be blamed on inadequate packaging though. There seems to be a at least 3 different issues so I'm not sure a "bad batch" can be blamed here either. We'd be seeing the same issue in that case.

Fingers crossed this is all the first 48 hour madness because I want me my shiny on the 29th and not think it's gonna fail 18 months in. The dilemma is that if I cancel and order in 6 months time will Sony's manufacturing process be tweaked enough for the first hardware revisions to be filtering through to retail? How quick are MS and Sony in terms of tweaks here and there? DO they usually wait 12 months to see what needs improving?

[Dandy_Sephy]

It depends what sort of tweaks we are talking about. Improving the manufacturing process to cut down on possible manufacturing error (or implementing additional QA tests on various processes) and making changes to the internal design are very different things.