Earlier today we talked about how UK TV show Watchdog was running a scathing feature on the alleged high failure rate of the PlayStation 3. In a bid to shame Sony, the show parked a branded van outside the company’s UK headquarters, offering free PS3 repairs to anybody suffering from a so-called “yellow light of death.”
Yeah, that failed pretty hard.
Watchdog filmed eleven users getting their PS3 repaired by a crack team. It was later revealed that the “experts” had ended their good deed with four of the PS3s completely inoperable. In addition, the show stated that “thousands and thousands” of PS3s were broken around the UK, and went so far as to X-ray a console to show “trapped gas” within it, failing to explain exactly what the gas was, why it was there, and how it affected the machine’s operation.
The show was also fond of factual inaccuracies, claiming the PS3 costs £400 and that repairs would amount to a further £528, both of which aren’t true. Sony itself declined to appear on the show due to the report’s tone, amidst fears that its defense would simply be ridiculed. As we stated in our earlier story, however, Sony Europe’s Ray Maguire refuted the show’s claims in a six-page letter.
From the looks of things, the segment on Watchdog was poorly researched, blatantly innaccurate and simply not true. Sounds like the kind of thing I expect from the BBC these days.
