Perhaps you're younger than me? I was in college when the PS1 was in its prime. I literally know of no one (both personally and on the internet) from that time that didn't buy at least two PSXs, if not three. The PSXs poor reliability was a huge deal and controversy at the time. The PS2's poor reliability was enough to warrant a class action lawsuit (that Sony lost).
I've not kept up on PS3 reliability, as when my PS2 died, I decided to never buy another Sony product again.
I use to own a PS1 and a PS2 (The PS2 being the last console I have owned). I never heard about these problems until now.
You'd be hard pressed to find a 360 owner that doesn't know of the RROD. You'd be hard pressed to find a non-gamer below their 30s who hasn't heard at least once something about the RROD.
Don't mistake this for praise of Sony. Obviously they have a serious problem with the PS4, and I despise the corporation for plenty of other reasons. All I'm saying here is that Microsoft's 360 problems are in a class of their own (it is too early to say if the PS4 will match or exceed the 360 issues, perhaps it will).
That's not my point. Of course the RROD was a monumental issue. Probably the biggest video game hardware related issue ever.
My point is Sony's hardware is quite famous for being extremely unreliable. Every Playstation generation has been plagued with issues. Widespread, class action lawsuit worthy, issues. Sony has never once addressed them, admitted them, or made any effort to improve their quality. Sony simply doesn't care.
The PS4 already having quality issues is not a surprise at all. Yet the Xbox One having quality issues would surprise me. And that is where the difference lies.
> My point is Sony's hardware is quite famous for being extremely unreliable
s/hardware/game systems/
Sony had a reputation for quality (and style) prior to (and aside from) the Playstation.
According to a friend of mine that worked for them back-in-the-day, the SCE division was a sort of black sheep within Sony, insular and culturally rather distinct, and even rather hated by mainstream Sony management (especially at SCE's "height" when they became crazy arrogant). However, the Playstation was so insanely popular that Sony had little choice but to tolerate it.
I don't know what things are like now, but I'd think that time, the importance of the PS to Sony, and things like the PS3 fiasco ("they can just get a second job to pay for it!") may have moderated SCE and brought it into the fold somewhat.
[Sony's other divisions weren't perfect, of course, and especially really low-end stuff (e.g. $25 phones) not made in Japan didn't really transcend their price-point. But they've always had a pretty good reputation in general.]
I'll rephrase: The fact that I was previously ignorant of widespread hardware failures of Sony hardware probably says something itself.
Hell, I'll spell it out for you: those issues were not in the same league as the Xbox 360 failures. Even non-gamers, such as myself, are aware of the 360 RROD. There are fucking Cracked articles about it for crying out loud.
A mechanic might know that a 2005 Toyota Tacoma has an issue where the fizzbuzz widget wears out after too many miles... Everybody knows that the Ford Pinto had an issue. The 360 RROD was Microsoft's Pinto.
