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Many PS4 units dead on arrival

amazon.com

31–40 of 136 posts

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#31
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of right now, there are 323 1-star reviews. Sony sold "81,639" PS3 consoles on that unit's launch day. So if Amazon shipped 81,639 PS 4 consoles, this would be a failure rate of 4.0 units per 1000, or 0.4%. Microsoft noted at one point during the Xbox 360 launch that the industry standard failure rate was between 3 and 5%. Presuming that same 3-5% is the failure rate for the PS4, and that 100% of DOA customers pos…

Re: 'Industry standard' error rate. I admittedly haven't worked in manufacturing at anything even resembling that scale, but I did spend a summer working for a company that assembled, sold, and installed PCs to local small businesses and (particularly) school districts. A 4-5% failure rate, at the point of installation, would have been absolutely inconceivable in that job. Sure, there were lots of failures, most caus…

I don't know much about manufacturing either. But, wouldn't Sony also make sure their units "more or less work" before they leave the factory?

I mean, the thing could be working on departure and dead on arrival.

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#32
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or worse, the Xbox 360 RROD issue, which was an inevitable ticking time bomb that could blow at any time.

Why worse? Weren't the rrod Xboxes replaced by Microsoft? PS4 has not made any public announcement that I know of.

And how many years did it take for Microsoft to come to that decision? Exactly.

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#33
post #10

The problem with those reviews is those whose console is working are not complaining. Are there any hard numbers on the proportion of dead consoles? Have Sony commented on this issue?

As of right now, there are 323 1-star reviews. Sony sold "81,639" PS3 consoles on that unit's launch day. So if Amazon shipped 81,639 PS 4 consoles, this would be a failure rate of 4.0 units per 1000, or 0.4%. Microsoft noted at one point during the Xbox 360 launch that the industry standard failure rate was between 3 and 5%. Presuming that same 3-5% is the failure rate for the PS4, and that 100% of DOA customers pos…

If it were just the industry standard failure rate then we should have seen a similar pattern of bad reviews for the other recent console launches. I don't know if that happened or not, but I think you're making it a bit too easy just blaming it on the standard failure rate.

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#34
post #28

I find it interesting that as of now with 516 5 star reviews and 332 1 star reviews (and very few 2, 3 or 4 star reviews) the average still shows up as 3.5 stars. It's interesting since the lowest value possible is 1, so more realistically it's not 3.5/5 but 2.5/4. I'm wondering if this makes a psychological difference and if less people would buy something on amazon if they changed their rating system to go from 0 -…

This has always bothered me, both on Amazon and the iTunes app store. No lie, when I published my first app, one of the comments was "I'd rate this zero stars if I could." and my first thought was actually "wait, why can't you?"

Overall, I think YouTube was on the ball by switching to a "Thumbs up, Thumbs down" rating system. "Out of five star" rating systems are always sabotaged by the fact that most people think in absolutes: Either something is the bee's knees or it's fried shit on a biscuit. Given that most people vote this way, up/down vote systems are better at giving an honest impression of how people feel about something.

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#35
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of right now, there are 323 1-star reviews. Sony sold "81,639" PS3 consoles on that unit's launch day. So if Amazon shipped 81,639 PS 4 consoles, this would be a failure rate of 4.0 units per 1000, or 0.4%. Microsoft noted at one point during the Xbox 360 launch that the industry standard failure rate was between 3 and 5%. Presuming that same 3-5% is the failure rate for the PS4, and that 100% of DOA customers pos…

Re: 'Industry standard' error rate. I admittedly haven't worked in manufacturing at anything even resembling that scale, but I did spend a summer working for a company that assembled, sold, and installed PCs to local small businesses and (particularly) school districts. A 4-5% failure rate, at the point of installation, would have been absolutely inconceivable in that job. Sure, there were lots of failures, most caus…

Famous Xbox 360 problem (RROD) was not on arrival. So probably they mentioned this 4-5% statistics for some period of time, not for DOA.

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#36
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: 'Industry standard' error rate. I admittedly haven't worked in manufacturing at anything even resembling that scale, but I did spend a summer working for a company that assembled, sold, and installed PCs to local small businesses and (particularly) school districts. A 4-5% failure rate, at the point of installation, would have been absolutely inconceivable in that job. Sure, there were lots of failures, most caus…

Famous Xbox 360 problem (RROD) was not on arrival. So probably they mentioned this 4-5% statistics for some period of time, not for DOA.

Ah, that would make a bit more sense.

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#37
post #8

I read a comment earlier that made a good point that unlike the console launches of the previous generation in 2004-2006, we now have access to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to vocalize and demonstrate our complaints worldwide. It makes the vocal minority much more vocal.

If you clicked on the link above, you will see that nearly 40% of the Amazon reviews are 1*. There is a good chance that most of those people received a dead PS4. Agree that not everybody who received a good PS4 left a positive review but this certainly does not make it looks like a minority.

There are also other possible reasons for negative reviews. For many people who used only Xbox before just look of interface of PS could be a shock.

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#38
post #28

I find it interesting that as of now with 516 5 star reviews and 332 1 star reviews (and very few 2, 3 or 4 star reviews) the average still shows up as 3.5 stars. It's interesting since the lowest value possible is 1, so more realistically it's not 3.5/5 but 2.5/4. I'm wondering if this makes a psychological difference and if less people would buy something on amazon if they changed their rating system to go from 0 -…

This has always bothered me, both on Amazon and the iTunes app store. No lie, when I published my first app, one of the comments was "I'd rate this zero stars if I could." and my first thought was actually "wait, why can't you?" Overall, I think YouTube was on the ball by switching to a "Thumbs up, Thumbs down" rating system. "Out of five star" rating systems are always sabotaged by the fact that most people think in…

I wonder if a five star rating system could secretly count only the 2 and 4 star reviews without telling anyone, sort of filter out anyone passionate enough to try to game things...

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#39
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why worse? Weren't the rrod Xboxes replaced by Microsoft? PS4 has not made any public announcement that I know of.

And how many years did it take for Microsoft to come to that decision? Exactly.

The RROD was really crappy, for sure. But ultimately MS did do do the right thing, or at least they tried. On the other hand, Sony has never stood behind their consoles. From the PS1 cd drive wearing out prematurely [0], to the PSP's analog nub falling off[1] to PS2 disc read errors [2] to... on and on. Sony has never once helped the consumer in these situations. For most Playstation owners, buying multiple systems per generation is just part of owning a Playstation.

[0] -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_(console)#Hardware_...

[1] -- http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-9761604-1.html

[2] -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playstation_2#Disc_Read_Error_....

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#40
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or worse, the Xbox 360 RROD issue, which was an inevitable ticking time bomb that could blow at any time.

Idk, I've never had that happen, while some people have had it happen over and over. From my perspective, it doesn't seem any more inevitable than the console becoming obsolete.

Really? I've had that happen on five different units I (or my brothers) have owned. Given, after our first "new" one rrod'd, we started buying refurbs. From what I've seen, though, it really is inevitable, and I've just started expecting them to die at some random point. My current one has lasted two years, though.
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