Sony Sued Over PS3-Destroying Firmware 3.0

[DanDeFool]

Why are people surprised? Sony, as a company, is evil. Pure god damn evil. I could list the shit they've pulled over the years, but it would give me a headache.

Well at least someone gets it.

Companies are evil, inherantly! especially in a competitive buisness! All of them are so theres no reason to make one out to be more evil than the others!

Ah no, companies are not inherently evil. Greedy? Definitly! Evil? Not usually. They want your money. Are you going to give your money to an evil person? No? Didn't think so. Sending out an update that breaks your console is a case of incompetence. For it to be evil, it would have to set off a hidden package of C4 meant to kill you, or something.

Sending out an update that breaks your console is the incompetence part, charging people $150 for repair is the evil part, and frankly it's not even that high on the scale of "evil shit sony has done". Regardless of whether or not companies are inherently evil, sony really takes the cake.

The problem here, is that the people who start and run companies are trained to be 'evil' as a matter of course. I've listened to several self-help and training tapes on sales and entrepreneurship, and basically they teach you to set goals and go after them, single-mindedly, until they're achieved, regardless of what stands in your way, and not to think about anthing that isn't going to help your success. Not bad advice by any stretch of the imagination, but when you train people to pursue the goal of making money above all other considerations, and couple it with manifest-destiny capitalism (i.e., the world is full of big fat wallets attached to people, now let's go out and get the money from them damn wallets!), corporate evil is bound to crop up in no small number of cases.

 

[The Rockerfly]

Wait, what right does this company have to sue Sony?

 

[RelexCryo]

Sony Sued Over PS3-Destroying Firmware 3.0

Sony is being served with a class-action lawsuit over its poorly-received 3.0 firmware update, which is said to have "irreparably damaged" thousands of PlayStation 3 consoles.

Some might say the launch of the mandatory firmware 3.0 was reports Courthouse News [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94487-Sony-Looking-Into-PS3-Firmware-3-00-Issues].

[blockquote]Thousands of Sony PlayStation 3 owners say they downloaded a mandatory software update that irreparably damaged their machines, causing the consoles to freeze and the controllers to stop working. In a federal class action against Sony Computer Entertainment America, disgruntled gamers say their PS3s crashed after they installed Firmware 3.0, which Sony claimed would add "a number of great new features" and "changes that improve navigation on (their) PS3."[/blockquote]

The lawsuit further alleges that the followup "fix" update (which, despite what Courthouse News says, did not come out "months" after 3.0's early September release) resulted in further problems, rendering Blu-Ray drives inoperable. According to lead plaintiff John Kennedy, Sony told him it would cost him $150 to repair his broken console.

Kennedy and the other members of the class-action suit are demanding "declaratory relief, compensation and restitution for breach of implied warranty, negligence and unjust enrichment."

(Via Edge [http://www.edge-online.com/news/sony-sued-over-ps3-crashing-firmware])

Permalink

Ewwww. Sony SHOULD be paying for their busted consoles. As I recall, Microsoft did. Sheesh. I totally support these guys in their lawsuit.

 

[RelexCryo]

Why are people surprised? Sony, as a company, is evil. Pure god damn evil. I could list the shit they've pulled over the years, but it would give me a headache.

Well at least someone gets it.

Companies are evil, inherantly! especially in a competitive buisness! All of them are so theres no reason to make one out to be more evil than the others!

Ah no, companies are not inherently evil. Greedy? Definitly! Evil? Not usually. They want your money. Are you going to give your money to an evil person? No? Didn't think so. Sending out an update that breaks your console is a case of incompetence. For it to be evil, it would have to set off a hidden package of C4 meant to kill you, or something.

Sending out an update that breaks your console is the incompetence part, charging people $150 for repair is the evil part, and frankly it's not even that high on the scale of "evil shit sony has done". Regardless of whether or not companies are inherently evil, sony really takes the cake.

The problem here, is that the people who start and run companies are trained to be 'evil' as a matter of course. I've listened to several self-help and training tapes on sales and entrepreneurship, and basically they teach you to set goals and go after them, single-mindedly, until they're achieved, regardless of what stands in your way, and not to think about anthing that isn't going to help your success. Not bad advice by any stretch of the imagination, but when you train people to pursue the goal of making money above all other considerations, and couple it with manifest-destiny capitalism (i.e., the world is full of big fat wallets attached to people, now let's go out and get the money from them damn wallets!), corporate evil is bound to crop up in no small number of cases.

I totally agree with RebellionXXI. The problem is the philosophy and morals these guys are taught. Also, SOE did....really, really *bad* things to Star Wars Galaxies.

*shudder*

 

[twistedshadows]

Nothing happened to my PS3 after the download. Guess I'm lucky.

Sony definitely shouldn't expect their customers to pay for something that they broke by forcing their users to download a faulty update.

 

[The_Healer]

Didn't break mine...
I was even playing Uncharted on it at the time.

 

[dalek sec]

Great, now I'm afraid to get a PS3 and hook it up to the internet for fear of it being bricked like this.

 

[theultimateend]

Sony Sued Over PS3-Destroying Firmware 3.0

Sony is being served with a class-action lawsuit over its poorly-received 3.0 firmware update, which is said to have "irreparably damaged" thousands of PlayStation 3 consoles.

Some might say the launch of the mandatory firmware 3.0 was reports Courthouse News [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94487-Sony-Looking-Into-PS3-Firmware-3-00-Issues].

[blockquote]Thousands of Sony PlayStation 3 owners say they downloaded a mandatory software update that irreparably damaged their machines, causing the consoles to freeze and the controllers to stop working. In a federal class action against Sony Computer Entertainment America, disgruntled gamers say their PS3s crashed after they installed Firmware 3.0, which Sony claimed would add "a number of great new features" and "changes that improve navigation on (their) PS3."[/blockquote]

The lawsuit further alleges that the followup "fix" update (which, despite what Courthouse News says, did not come out "months" after 3.0's early September release) resulted in further problems, rendering Blu-Ray drives inoperable. According to lead plaintiff John Kennedy, Sony told him it would cost him $150 to repair his broken console.

Kennedy and the other members of the class-action suit are demanding "declaratory relief, compensation and restitution for breach of implied warranty, negligence and unjust enrichment."

(Via Edge [http://www.edge-online.com/news/sony-sued-over-ps3-crashing-firmware])

Permalink

OH! So THAT is why uncharted didn't work? I was wondering. I looked at the disc and it looked flawless.

Better email gamefly and apologize for my error .

Has there been any news of if the update breaks wireless? I had a networking guy trying to help me set the damn thing up and we both couldn't get it to recognize.

Every other wireless device I own has been able to connect when necessary...but the PS3 can't (all told only 3 other things).

I apoligize in advance if I am wrong about this. My lawyer speak is not very good.

TERMS OF SERVICE AND USER AGREEMENT [http://www.us.playstation.com/support/useragreements/13]

Spoiler

10. MAINTENANCE AND UPGRADES

From time to time, it may become necessary for SCEA to provide certain content or services to you to ensure that PSN, your PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, the PSP®(PlayStation®Portable) system or other SCEA-authorized hardware is functioning properly in accordance with SCEA guidelines. Some content or services may be provided automatically without notice when you sign into PSN. Such content or service may include automatic updates or upgrades which may change your current operating system, cause a loss of data or content or cause a loss of functionalities or utilities. Such upgrades or updates may be provided for system software for your PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, the PSP®(PlayStation®Portable) system, or other SCEA-authorized hardware. Access or use to any system software is subject to terms and conditions of a separate end user license agreement found at http://www.us.Playstation.com/termsofuse. You authorize SCEA to provide such content and services and agree that SCEA shall not be liable for any damages arising from provision of such content or services or maintenance services. It is recommended that you regularly back up any data located on the hard disk that is of a type that can be backed up.

For whatever reason those don't hold up in court.

My best guess is that it is essentially universal knowledge that they are too long and written in a manner that is (at least in many cases) incomprehensible.

If they made a TL;DR version I'm sure they might have a strong case to work with. Otherwise all the "herein known as" crap just gets mind boggling.

I've put silly clauses in TOS's before just for shits and giggles. Nobody even brings them up.

Reckon I should check out Uncharted to see if it's effected it.

Is there a list of games which have had problems since 3.01?

Didn't work for me. Froze at the "Nazi Uboat" scene two times in a row but at slightly different places.

 

[theultimateend]

Edit: Woops...delete this one.

 

[mariofan1000]

At least microsoft are nice. Honestly Sony charging for the firmware problem is like them hitting your PS3 with a baseball bat until it falls apart and then charging for it to be fixed.

 

[JWAN]

I think sony has a boo-boo.
Oh well, I think they can get over it.
Kinda like the RROD, really. they'll find a way to get past it.

Maybe, but I'm finding sony fan boys pain delicious.

 

[JWAN]

Sony Sued Over PS3-Destroying Firmware 3.0

Sony is being served with a class-action lawsuit over its poorly-received 3.0 firmware update, which is said to have "irreparably damaged" thousands of PlayStation 3 consoles.

Some might say the launch of the mandatory firmware 3.0 was reports Courthouse News [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94487-Sony-Looking-Into-PS3-Firmware-3-00-Issues].

[blockquote]Thousands of Sony PlayStation 3 owners say they downloaded a mandatory software update that irreparably damaged their machines, causing the consoles to freeze and the controllers to stop working. In a federal class action against Sony Computer Entertainment America, disgruntled gamers say their PS3s crashed after they installed Firmware 3.0, which Sony claimed would add "a number of great new features" and "changes that improve navigation on (their) PS3."[/blockquote]

The lawsuit further alleges that the followup "fix" update (which, despite what Courthouse News says, did not come out "months" after 3.0's early September release) resulted in further problems, rendering Blu-Ray drives inoperable. According to lead plaintiff John Kennedy, Sony told him it would cost him $150 to repair his broken console.

Kennedy and the other members of the class-action suit are demanding "declaratory relief, compensation and restitution for breach of implied warranty, negligence and unjust enrichment."

(Via Edge [http://www.edge-online.com/news/sony-sued-over-ps3-crashing-firmware])

Permalink

OH! So THAT is why uncharted didn't work? I was wondering. I looked at the disc and it looked flawless.

Better email gamefly and apologize for my error .

Has there been any news of if the update breaks wireless? I had a networking guy trying to help me set the damn thing up and we both couldn't get it to recognize.

Every other wireless device I own has been able to connect when necessary...but the PS3 can't (all told only 3 other things).

I apoligize in advance if I am wrong about this. My lawyer speak is not very good.

TERMS OF SERVICE AND USER AGREEMENT [http://www.us.playstation.com/support/useragreements/13]

Spoiler

10. MAINTENANCE AND UPGRADES

From time to time, it may become necessary for SCEA to provide certain content or services to you to ensure that PSN, your PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, the PSP®(PlayStation®Portable) system or other SCEA-authorized hardware is functioning properly in accordance with SCEA guidelines. Some content or services may be provided automatically without notice when you sign into PSN. Such content or service may include automatic updates or upgrades which may change your current operating system, cause a loss of data or content or cause a loss of functionalities or utilities. Such upgrades or updates may be provided for system software for your PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, the PSP®(PlayStation®Portable) system, or other SCEA-authorized hardware. Access or use to any system software is subject to terms and conditions of a separate end user license agreement found at http://www.us.Playstation.com/termsofuse. You authorize SCEA to provide such content and services and agree that SCEA shall not be liable for any damages arising from provision of such content or services or maintenance services. It is recommended that you regularly back up any data located on the hard disk that is of a type that can be backed up.

For whatever reason those don't hold up in court.

My best guess is that it is essentially universal knowledge that they are too long and written in a manner that is (at least in many cases) incomprehensible.

If they made a TL;DR version I'm sure they might have a strong case to work with. Otherwise all the "herein known as" crap just gets mind boggling.

I've put silly clauses in TOS's before just for shits and giggles. Nobody even brings them up.

Reckon I should check out Uncharted to see if it's effected it.

Is there a list of games which have had problems since 3.01?

Didn't work for me. Froze at the "Nazi Uboat" scene two times in a row but at slightly different places.

Well I would have to say that they fucked so many people at once that they wont just say "Go screw yourself, were not paying" because it affected every single PS3 owner. Do you want to lose your entire fan base in under a week?

 

[JWAN]

Wait, what right does this company have to sue Sony?

Sony fucked their reputation on a massive level

they have every right

 

[Carnagath]

Anyone know if any of the recent PS3 games have shipped including this troublesome firmware update? I'd like to avoid renting them and rent something that updates it to the fixed version first, since I have no way to connect my PS3 to the internet due to reasons that are too boring to explain.

 

[The Rockerfly]

Wait, what right does this company have to sue Sony?

Sony fucked their reputation on a massive level

they have every right

Yeah but this particular company, how has Sony effected this company then any other?

 

[Schlorgan]

so Sony is as fallible as Microsoft. Both of them can really screw their stuff up

 

[TimeLord]

I've found that Fallout 3 keeps freezing after 3.0 :S

That might explain why

 

[MercurySteam]

Nintendo did it, Sony has now done it and Microsoft did it once (although it was no where near as bad).

System updates = fun times.

 

[AxelMiller]

Soooo.. Not a good time to get a PS3?