October ranDOM rant

I recently introduced my ranDOM rants and I’m please to say, back by popular demand (yes, there has been 1 request) we are back with this months’ edition.

Doms ranDOM October rant

Sony Playstation 3

I bought my first Playstation back in 2002. After that, I owned a Playstation 2 for many years and back in March 2007, immediately after it was released, I bought myself a Playstation 3. Yes, you could say I’m a bit of a fan. I love the console, not just as a gaming gadget but I use it as a media suite viewing my videos and photos and storing some of my music. The built in web browser and Blu-Ray player are additional features I really enjoy.

Well, my PS3 served its duty until April 2010 when it suffered the fatal YLOD. A PS3 bug that stands for ‘yellow light of death’. It’s the equivalent of XBox’s RROD (red ring of death) and basically turns your PS3 into nothing more than an expensive paper weight. Nothing will work, it won’t even turn on and if you’re really unlucky it swallows the game you were last playing and won’t eject it. I was one of the really unlucky ones but I opened the little bugger up and at least managed to retrieve my game disc.

Following this, I bought a brand new Playstation 3, slim line, 250GB. At the time, the best a gamer can get. The warranty lasts 12 months. Well, guess what … 17 months into its short life, the graphic chip is gone. Burnt. Relegated to the past tense. This results in the console freezing randomly, if it even turns on in the first place. This is far from ideal when it comes to improving your progress in a game or when you want to watch a film. The console also freezes on the main dashboard. To fix it … that’ll be £145.00 please. That’s almost the same cost as buying a new PS3, except you don’t get a new warranty.

Earlier this year, Sony announced that a hacking attack was to blame for its PlayStation Network being taken offline. The company said that it had taken the PlayStation Network down voluntarily while it investigated an ‘external intrusion’. According to Sony, it has more than 75million accounts registered worldwide. They also announced that details of these accounts such as names, addresses and yes, credit card and bank details were stolen in the hack. Ooooops!

Truth be told, Sony did make up for that last one. They handed out a bunch a free games and made services to PS Plus available for free for 1 month. Additionally, and in my point of view even more impressively, three of the most senior figures behind the SONY PlayStation brand; Kazuo Hirai (CEO), Shiro Kambe and Shinji Hasejima (both senior vice presidents) bowed during a press conference in apology for the security breach in the company's PlayStation Network that caused the loss of personal data of some 75m accounts on the online service. When was the last time you saw a CEO bow in apology?! Probably when the PS3 network went down. And before that?

While my PS3 problem was away being diagnosed and the cost evaluated, I plugged my external hard drive into my XBox and thereby re-formatted the drive. With the click of a single button, I lost my entire collection of work documents, personal photos, videos, movies, TV programmes, music, etc. All gone! I just wanted to scream. Unfortunately, I can’t blame anyone else but me for that but I can’t help but think this wouldn’t have happened had my PS not broken down.

At this point, and concluding this rant, I am severely annoyed only by the fact I should pay £200 for a new PS3. Seriously, as inventors, technology developers and pioneers we can put a human being on the moon but we can’t make a PlayStation 3 that works a whole 5 years. Bow again SONY!