Sony Admits PlayStation2 Has Problems
Sony has admitted that some of its new PlayStation2 game consoles launched amid great fanfare a week ago have faulty memory cards, following hundreds of customer complaints. ""We have received about 340 inquries about problems regarding memory cards,"" Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. said in a statement obtained Saturday, March 11, 2000. Plug-in memory cards on PlayStation 2 machines have sometimes erased game data or corrupted programs running the digital video disc (DVD), the Sony unit admitted. The 39,800 yen ($370) PlayStation2 has been advertised not just as a game machine but also the cheapest DVD-Video player on the Japanese market. Sony has asked customers to return faulty cards or machines for replacement. ""According to our analysis up to now, the problems are not traced to specific software items but to faults in individual memory cards, and we will continue to make efforts to reduce the ratio of faulty products on the market,"" the company said. The Sony unit denied rumors that the company had halted production of memory cards or announced a recall of the game consoles. Speculation about PlayStation2's technical problems added to the weakness of Sony stock Friday, March 10, 2000. It tumbled 1,800 yen, or 6.4 percent, to end the week at 26,300 yen. The Sony unit sold as many as 600,000 units of PlayStation2 in a matter of hours after it hit stores on March 4, 2000. Some buyers spent four days in front of stores to make sure they got a machine. The firm has also received 380,000 Internet orders, but has shipped only 120,000 so far. Supply has been limited by a delay in memory card production, despite the company's earlier claim it would sell one million consoles in the first two days. US software giant Microsoft Corp. said Friday, March 10, 2000 that it would launch a powerful games console called X-Box, which it claims would be three times as powerful as Sony's new machine. Microsoft said a key feature of the X-Box, due for launch next year, is a hard drive, which has more data storage capacity than Sony's memory card. Source: Agence France-Presse