Sony Sued Over Bricked PS3s

Zarrot writes "If Sony's recent 3.00 PS3 firmware update bricked your console, you may now have legal recourse thanks to a class action suit against Sony. The complaint alleges that thousands of users (PDF) were affected by the update, and in some cases the PS3 hardware itself was damaged. It continues, 'For owners who sustained hardware damage from the Sony-required update, Sony is charging a $150 repair fee per unit. Sony, responding to the numerous complaints about the unacceptable effects of the defective update, released a further, optional update that it claimed "improves system stability" — yet performance problems continued, and the new update did nothing to remedy the systems of users who sustained hardware damage."'"

Re:XCP on steroids!

[JeffSpudrinski]

Didn't this same thing happen recently with the Wii console?

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/10/01/0626228 [slashdot.org]

One used to be able to trust the mainstream console makers, but not so much anymore.

Sony is no longer a reputable vendor

[stox]

I had the misfortune of buying one of their GPS units. Despite the fact that their support clearly acknowledged the defects the unit had from the day of purchase, Sony did not release a fix until 7 months later. Sony insists that I pay $99.95 to get that update. Needless to say, I no longer will buy Sony products.

Legal Recourse

[ShadowRangerRIT]

you may now have legal recourse thanks to a class action suit against Sony.

I'm probably being excessively pedantic, but you don't need a class action suit to have "legal recourse." It's just easier as a class. You can sue on your own if your property was damaged or a contract was violated.

Re:XCP on steroids!

[caladine]

Especially since Nintendo seems to have removed the message about repairing at no cost as well...
http://techforums.nintendo.com/nins/board/message?board.id=wii_tech&thread.id=29992 [nintendo.com]

Re:Sony is no longer a reputable vendor

[wizardforce]

Sony stopped being a reputable vendor the moment they infected people's electronics with their very own trojan. From there it all went down hill. It is disgusting that Sony can issue a patch that they know know to be faulty and then actually charge people to fix the damage that Sony created in the first place. Someone get a class action lawsuit together and sue these crooks.

Re:Bricked Consoles?

[The MAZZTer]

AFAIK Nintendo has offered free repairs for Wiis bricked by the 4.2 update.

Re:A few questions about this

[Coldeagle]

I have the same model and didn't run into any issues; however, I waited until the next upgrade. I always wait and see if my console will get bricked before doing any firmware updates ;)

As far as the console getting to hot, I picked up a cooling station for the PS3 and it has helped keep it running cooler (if not more quietly). Also be sure you've got enough airspace for proper ventilation.

Re:XCP on steroids!

[galaad2]

let's not forget the screwed by sony part...
sony pushed a "special" screw for 61+ euro when it was not special at all.

http://i35.tinypic.com/2q1z68m.jpg [tinypic.com]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2007/may/28/sonyuserscrew [guardian.co.uk]

I ran out of gas and now my car is bricked!

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

When it doesn't do what it's supposed to do (or stops doing what it's supposed to do), yeah, that's bricked.

No. It's bricked when there is no hope at all at making it playable again. If it can execute code, it's not bricked.

Honestly dude, It's bad enough the sensationalist media cannot use the term correctly.

Re:XCP on steroids!

[Enderandrew]

I haven't installed the update. I still play all my games just fine.

There is no forced decision.

Re:Legal Recourse

[eyrieowl]

Can't speak for other places...but at least in Texas, it might be easy enough to win the small claims filing, but it isn't binding, on appeal, they can go to regular civil court and it's as though the small-claims case never even happened. And collecting on a small claims win can be difficult. Winning is one thing, getting money is another. So they could easily let you pay the fees for filing suit in small claims court, not bother showing, and then appeal when you win to regular court, which...if you don't get a lawyer for the appeal, they could win, and force you to eat the court costs and legal fees. It sounds like a nice way to annoy them, but when you start looking at the practicalities, the class-action works out much better.

Re:XCP on steroids!

[Exlee]

It's not that bad. I bought some time ago NDS Lite. After a while screen calibration started to malfunction (well known problem). As I was in "not supported country" Nintendo haven't even respond for any of my e-mails. After 6 month I was left with piece of junk with no way of fixing it. So - what's left Microsoft? Come on..

Re:And when they win

[Zarrot]

Agreed. It was also much faster than I expected and they extended all the warranties for Red Ring of Death issues. All in all it was a plus customer service experience for me.

Re:XCP on steroids!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's "Hear! Hear!" like you're saying to listen to the guy.
hear/here [wsu.edu]

Re:XCP on steroids!

[sabre3999]

Update is mandatory to use the PSN or the store. Games still work fine, you just can't sign into services.

That still doesn't excuse the fact that their update bricked the hardware... nor is it the first time. I seem to remember a story a few months ago where new updates were bricking the older, PSX/PS2 reverse-compatible models (I have one and avoided it.)

His PS3 might have been used!!!

[medsource]

If I read the .pdf of the class action correctly, the plaintiff bought their now malfunctioning PS3 in Jan 2009 (no mention of new, only that it was for several hundred dollars) and the update was in Sept 2009... that's less than a year and this should be covered by the warranty (not for $150 which is the standard price for out of warranty repairs). It would appear that the PS3 in question was used and over a year old. Who knows what that particular unit's history was??? Methinks there's more to this than just bugs in the code (which could be there). Oh, and I have 3.0 and 3.0.1 on a PS3 20GB (launch Nov 2006) and a new Slim that are running just fine (anecdotal I know).

Re:Legal Recourse

[Jaysyn]

In Florida you can file a lien on real property or have a sheriff seize property and sell it to pay you your judgment.

Re:Bricked Consoles?

[tlhIngan]

That's pretty handy, actually. Still I'd rather not update mine until the update itself has a zero chance of bricking my unit. Even if it IS free, that's time where the wii itself is left unusable. (And I'm far from the only person who wants to use this one in particular.)

Good idea. 3.0 has an ad ticker that you cannot disable - it's constantly scrolling stuff for you to buy, new games, etc. (This is different from the startup ad, which you CAN disable). 2.x had the "info bar" ticker as well, but that was also something you can disable. In 3.0, the only way to disable it is to delete the internet connection. Serves me right for updating it when I really only use it as a blu-ray player.

They also seemed to have broken auto-startup of disc if you turn your PS3 off with the disc inside, and have auto-disc-startup enabled. If it's a blu-ray movie you're watching, it means you either eject/insert, or have to click over to movie, then start it manually.

Hopefully 3.1 fixes these two issues.

The only good part is there are less ads on the PS3 than the Xbox360 (though excepting the annoying sound one, I find the Xbox360 NXE ads useful...)

Re:Bricked?

[nametaken]

Nah... bricked means bricked.

"dictionary.reference.com"? As the wiki puts it, "When used in reference to consumer electronics, 'brick' describes a device that cannot function in any capacity (such as a device with damaged firmware)."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_(electronics) [wikipedia.org]

It has always meant that.

Re:Sigh

[berashith]

Exactly, I dont like Sony, but the PS3 is a unique experience, unavailable from any other vendor. Im probably not going to go out and buy a Sony TV, or cell phone or computer because there is ample competition and thre is nothing really unique about those items.

there are multiple references to the PS3 as a "unique experience" in this thread. Is there some marketing campaign that I have managed to avoid or are there astroturfers on slashdot?

oh wait ... it is the same person each time ... who do you work for ?

AS much as I dislike Sony, Im not going to deny myself a fantastic piece of hardware for it. Im the one who loses, not really Sony. Now i probably wont buy a Sony TV, or pretty much anything else Sony, but the PS3 is a unique experience, with games that cant be had anywhere else.

Re:XCP on steroids!

[ozgood]

To play games online you do have to update.