Sony is facing class action over a defect in the PS5. But do the accusations have any weight?
Illinois-based author Christina Trejo filed the lawsuit after discovering the PS5 was prone to completely shutting down during gameplay. The court documentation (opens in new tab) states that the defect “affects users’ ability to play video games and compromises the primary function and general use of the PS5”.
As evidence, the document cites a series of Amazon customer reviews and Reddit threads in the nearly two years the PS5 has been on sale. The unifying thread of these complaints is the console randomly shutting down without warning during gameplay.
Perhaps the most blunt accusation made by Trejo is that Sony knowingly concealed this issue and decided to sell the PS5s independently. If found guilty, Sony may be required to pay a fine to cover the cost of these defects.
Does the process have any weight?
This latest lawsuit against Sony is far from the first time a console maker has been taken to court over a defect. Previously, Nintendo went to court over the Switch’s Joy-Con bypass issue, which causes packaged Nintendo Switch controllers to register movement to the sticks even when not being touched.
In the latter case, it’s not entirely accurate to say that Sony hasn’t released information about the PS5’s crash defect. By the admission of the process itself, Sony official support page (opens in new tab) states that consoles that turn off during game play are eligible for repair if under warranty.
Granted, it’s not an issue anxious PS5 buyers should deal with in the first place. And the lawsuit cites threads through July 2022 reporting the issue. It seems this is still an issue for some PS5 owners.
It also appears to be a defect in the console specifically. Many players are reporting the issue in various games. If the defect is not isolated to a specific game, this process may spur Sony to provide a future firmware update.
In general, consoles are prone to hardware issues like this. And the suit makes a good case that they shouldn’t be allowed to launch with such glaring problems.
Sony has done well to bring welcome firmware updates to the PS5, such as the addition of VRR. But it looks like there’s more work to be done if a decent number of users are still reporting glaring bugs as the subject of this lawsuit.
