Sony has done a great job with there line of PlayStation Consoles and have been able to dodge the huge competition in the gaming industry through there unique design and composition of the PlayStation 3. However on March 1st Sony "hit a brick wall," seeing as thousands of PlayStation Consoles malfunctioned due to a network error which blocked users from accessing their PlayStation Network. Not only did they lose all access to their friends list, they also were not able to play their games both online and offline, putting many people in great stress. It was said that the reason for this mishap was due to a minor date error. Apparently the PlayStation 3 Console had confused the leap years, which caused all online updates to shutdown while also setting the date back to Jan 1st 2000. This caused great havoc to those who owned a PlayStation 3, as they were left with, what they thought, was a broken console that would not be fixed. That in some cases was indeed true. Apparently this error not only stopped game play but also resulted in hardware damage, which is something that cannot be fixed unless replaced for a $200 cost.
Many people look at this day as PlayStation 3's breaking point from its former competitor XBOX 360. In my eyes it makes no sense how one event can cause so many people to turn there backs on PlayStation. They make it seems as if the console they bought will be perfect, which cannot be said about any kind of electronic device. If you compare the problems people encounter with the ps3 as apposed to the XBOX 360, you will notice that even though PlayStation encounter one major problem, XBOX 360 is bound to fall face first more often. The 360 is one console that is guaranteed to shutdown on you at least once within the first year of use. People already have a name for this problem and is known as the "Red rings of death." I think that if you look at PlayStation throughout its existence rather than on one current event, you will realize that if you are looking for a reliable console that has a longer life than other you can count on PlayStation. Many people think that due to this one event PlayStation has lost all strength in its consoles but what they don't understand is that as soon as this problem hit Sony was able to resolve the conflict within the same day. In my opinion that shows commitment and dedication on PlayStation's part towards its consumers. Compare that to the well known "red rings of death," which takes 2 weeks to fix and you can clearly see that calling this one event a "take down" is foolish.
