Black beauty

While there was widespread hysteria yesterday when a batch of early PlayStation 4 consoles bricked, last night’s North American launch hasn’t exactly brought a glut of bad news. That’s because it seems that, aside from a few isolated cases, the next generation console is pretty well built – and the platform holder has evidenced as much by indicating to IGN that it doesn’t expect the device’s fail rate to exceed 0.4 per cent.

“A handful of people have reported issues with their PS4 systems,” a spokesperson told the website. “This is within our expectations for a new product introduction, and the vast majority of PS4 feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. We are closely monitoring for additional reports, but we think that these are isolated incidents and are on track for a great launch.”

The firm continued: “There have been several problems reported, which leads us to believe that there isn’t a singular problem that could impact a broader percentage of systems. The number of affected systems represents less than 0.4 per cent of shipped units to date, which is within our expectations for a new product introduction."

The most reported problem at the minute pertains to a dodgy HDMI connection, but if you’re careful hooking your console up, you shouldn’t really encounter any issues. That and some PlayStation Network woes aside, we reckon that the platform holder will be breathing a big sigh of relief right now. Getting the consoles out into the wild was the last real challenge for the manufacturer, and it seems to have executed outstandingly well overall.

[source uk.ign.com]