Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over PS3 Failures

[Attebery]

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh..._Failures/3551

[torres546]

I had a feeling this was going to happen. But is anything going to happen, if only a small base claims that the 3.00 update messed up their drives?

I know if we are talking about millions, Sony would have (hopefully) issued some type of free fix or swap out. But if we are talking about less than a thousand...

Then again I have no idea what the figure is for those who recieved problems after 3.00

[ElwoodJD]

There was already a decent thread on the 3.01 disc-read errors when HDD ran that news a couple weeks back. Of course, I remember some Sony fans acting shocked that HDD would post news regarding the issue:

Originally Posted by bplewis24

There are no problems with the firmware. I'm frankly surprised FUD like this actually made it to the front page of HDD as if it were breaking news. Very sad when anecdotes pass for empirical evidence.

Of course, a class action lawsuit isn't proof of firmware-based problems either, but it does tend to support the notion that this is a more widespread problem than a handful of people. It doesn't help the cause that Sony refuses to repair them without $150 extra investment by their core-consumers.

Glad to see that people have taken this to court if it really has affected that many people. I remember seeing a thread following 3.0 and 3.01 that was up to 30 pages long on official Sony forums, without a single response except "firmware can't affect hardware, so it clearly wasn't us." Just the court costs alone associated with this class action might force them to play nicer next time they put out a mandatory update that adds nothing more than cosmetics and a rushed update to fix the cosmetic mandatory one.

[DSquared]

Could someone please help me understand how the update can be mandatory? Can't you choose to not download and install it? If you don't have your PS3 hooked up to the internet, I don't think you will get the update. It it is hooked up to the internet for online gaming and BD Live, are they forcing the update before you can do anything else with the machine?

[HamsterDance]

I agree with the suit only because sony is making their consumers pay $150 to fix a MANDITORY update.

[speedracex]

Originally Posted by DSquared

Could someone please help me understand how the update can be mandatory? Can't you choose to not download and install it? If you don't have your PS3 hooked up to the internet, I don't think you will get the update. It it is hooked up to the internet for online gaming and BD Live, are they forcing the update before you can do anything else with the machine?

No, if your PS3 is not hooked up, it will not get the update, but like you said if you want to do online gaming, or access BD live, the PS3 would tell you a mandatory update is available before you can do that

[torres546]

Originally Posted by DSquared

Could someone please help me understand how the update can be mandatory? Can't you choose to not download and install it? If you don't have your PS3 hooked up to the internet, I don't think you will get the update. It it is hooked up to the internet for online gaming and BD Live, are they forcing the update before you can do anything else with the machine?

Well if you want to play any online multiplayer, you have to do the mandatory update first. I'm not to sure about the use of BD-Live.

And your right, if the PS3 isnt connected to the internet, then you wont receive any notifications about updates.

But 3.00 was mandatory, if you want to go online, you have to download. 3.01 totally optional. However 3.01 was the "fix" for the Uncharted issues.
So it fixes the game by frakking up the drive, so you cant see the problem anymore.

[elvisizer]

Originally Posted by HamsterDance

I agree with the suit only because sony is making their consumers pay $150 to fix a MANDITORY update.

yeah, screw sony for sticking to the terms of their warranty!
the only people who have to pay $150 for a PS3 repair are people who are out of warranty. If your BD drive dies after applying the 3.0 update and you're still covered, guess what? Sony'll repair it for free.

[torres546]

Originally Posted by HamsterDance

I agree with the suit only because sony is making their consumers pay $150 to fix a MANDITORY update.

I totally agree too, something like this should be handled by the company FREE of charge.

Its not like all of this people downloaded 3.00 and then poured water into the systems vent will it was on.

[elvisizer]

Originally Posted by ElwoodJD

Of course, a class action lawsuit isn't proof of firmware-based problems either, but it does tend to support the notion that this is a more widespread problem than a handful of people.

it doesn't even support that. all it means is some lawyer say the words 'sony' and 'class action' and then saw $$$$$$$$$.
I doubt this will go anywhere at all.

[torres546]

Originally Posted by elvisizer

it doesn't even support that. all it means is some lawyer say the words 'sony' and 'class action' and then saw $$$$$$$$$.
I doubt this will go anywhere at all.

As of right now, your most likely right. The more I think about, how are people going to prove that the firmware, screwed up the system, and not the way they handle the system.

[elvisizer]

Originally Posted by torres546

The more I think about, how are people going to prove that the firmware, screwed up the system, and not the way they handle the system.

exactly!
If sony were refusing to honor their warranty, that would be a different story, but they ARE honoring it.

[pkremer]

Thankfully, I seem to have avoided this problem. I read about the update issues the day after I had updated, but I have watched 2 Blu-ray movies since then without so much as a hiccup, so hopefully I avoided the problem.

[ElwoodJD]

Originally Posted by elvisizer

yeah, screw sony for sticking to the terms of their warranty!
the only people who have to pay $150 for a PS3 repair are people who are out of warranty. If your BD drive dies after applying the 3.0 update and you're still covered, guess what? Sony'll repair it for free.

Originally Posted by elvisizer

exactly!
If sony were refusing to honor their warranty, that would be a different story, but they ARE honoring it.

So you'd still support Sony for sticking to their terms of warranty if they sent reps to people's homes who were out of warranty to take a hammer to their PS3 (but offered to not smash it for $150)? Because if the plaintiffs in this suit prove the firmware damaged the BD operability of the drive, then that's effectively what Sony will have done.

Originally Posted by elvisizer

it doesn't even support that. all it means is some lawyer say the words 'sony' and 'class action' and then saw $$$$$$$$$.
I doubt this will go anywhere at all.

You're right, it doesn't mean that this is a widespread problem since they only really need 5 people to start the class action suit. I'll be interested to see how many people eventually enter as class members.

Still, to say you doubt this will go anywhere seems warrantless. If enough people join the class and they can get some software engineer to take a look at the firmware update and point to what made some systems go haywire, then Sony will most likely settle to avoid the bad press (especially after all the hemming and hawing Sony themselves did during the Microsoft RRoD class action).

[Vidfreek]

Well I think its total crap IF this firmware did do something to their systems that Sony wont take care of the problem regardless of your warranty status. Microsoft took care of their issues and didnt say FU to people when the red ring started showing up, all my problems were taken care of when I had DRE errors, red rings and others had Dashboard updates that fubared their system and MS took care of those problems as well.

Sony telling people to F off after their update caused the problems is the wrong answer to the question, I dont care if the warranty is up or not because the PS3 wouldnt have had ANY issues if the firmware actually caused this malfunction