New claims of PS4’s Red Line of Death beginning to pop up

Back in October, Sony's Shuhei Yoshida denied rumors that PlayStation 4 systems were suffering from the "Red Line of Death" — a play off of Xbox 360's Red Ring of Death which basically bricked the console. The rumor initially stemmed from an image showing the PS4 in an unventilated plastic case and displaying a red LED light. The red light is believed to be a system response to overheating and once the system cools down its supposed to go back to blue. I'm not so sure that's happening with some users.

As the PlayStation 4 begins getting into the hands of the masses, we're seeing more and more evidence of PS4 systems suffering from a similar RLoD issue. The first comes from NeoGAF member inner-G who posted a YouTube video of his problem.

Firmware install stopped partway through, now after booting it gives a red line and shuts down. System information says it is on 1.01 still? Fans never turn on causing the red light and overheating.

And then there's these videos, all showing the same issue:

One thing these videos all have in common are the PS4's displaying the red line and then beeping three times before shutting down. Keep in mind, these are just a few isolated cases. After all, the PS4 is probably in the hands of millions of gamers, so there's no reason to start a panic… yet.

Sony has already acknowledged there have been a "a handful of people" who have reported issues with their PlayStation 4 systems. "This is within our expectations for a new product introduction, and the vast majority of PS4 feedback has been overwhelmingly positive," the company said. Sony estimates that the number of affected systems represents "less than .04% of shipped units to date," which is apparently within the company expectations for a new introduction.

Thankfully, I've not experienced the Red Line of Death (hopefully I didn't just jynx myself!). How has your PS4 launch experience been so far?