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The Playstation 3 has been critiqued for technical problems of varying significance, including occurrences of total failure and units shipped to customers that are Dead on Arrival[1][2]. Gamers and Developers have speculated that the reason behind this was the fact that Sony rushed the system out[3] to meet competitors in the marketplace. As with other recent console launches a certain amount of defective units has come to be expected at launch, 3%-5% on average is regarded by the gaming industry as normal for a new console release. Sony has yet to make comment on the overall return rate (i.e. the failure rate) of the console.
Hardware Failures
Controller Connectivity Issues
Users have been experiencing 3-4 second disconnects or the controller "freezing up" on them. This issue was not isolated to a particular game or action as it was reported occurring in a seemingly random manner in multiple games. Sony has not released an official response to this issue yet. [4][5].
This is usually caused due to overheating and can be solved by placing the PS2 in a place where the fans can blow all the air[6].
PS3 Emitting a "High Pitched Whine"
Some consoles has been reported to emit a "High Pitched Whine" for unknown reasons. So far, all reported consoles having this issue have serial numbers beginning with CE133212XXX or CE133190XXX. [7][8].
Defective Disc Loaders
Though reports are scarce at the moment and therefore it is too early to tell if this is a widespread issue or within the 3%-5% estimated "norm" for consoles failure rates, some users are reporting defective disc loaders in brand new consoles. [9] [10].
Operating Environment Failures
Poorly Implemented Online Functionality
Developers report that the Playstation 3 lacks a cohesive development methodology to implement Online features. In order to implement online features, Developers must give up access to a great deal of memory and one of the CPU cores becomes available to the operating environment periodically and unexpectedly.[11] [12]