The PlayStation 5, which has officially sold over 30 million units, could break sooner due to a design flaw!

The PlayStation 5 is designed by Sony to be used either vertically (upright) or horizontally (lying down). More than two years have passed since the console launched, and it may not be accurate, as console repair experts say otherwise. 68Logic has owned such a shop since 2010 in France and has been able to see its customers’ consoles up close since then. In a picture posted on Twitter, he wrote: “Don’t use your PlayStation 5 upright. Here is the result the liquid moves, and the freezes are there.” Think of liquid metal covering the APU (the AMD processor and graphics chip that sits under the same “roof”).

It can sometimes spill and become uneven, which can be detrimental to cooling at the very least. Ben Montana, another console specialist (also based in France but owner of ILoveMyConsole), has been trying to raise awareness of the issue on Facebook for months. According to him, these are not uncommon cases, as there is a high risk of it happening if you use a PlayStation 5 vertically for a long time (and all models of it, including the Digital Edition with no Blu-ray drive, are affected!) There are theories that the PlayStation 5 Standard Edition is higher at risk in this regard due to the vibrations generated by the Blu-ray drive…

Theoretically, cooling the processor with liquid metal is not a problem, as the cooling mechanism and the processor are so tightly pressed that no spilling can occur when using the right amount of material. Still, gravity causes the liquid to go down the console in the PlayStation 5 due to a design flaw. The “seal” of the console can move between the APU and the cooler and can even be damaged. Horizontally, it does not cause any problems: the console stays appropriately cooled, but vertically, the liquid metal can spill onto components. If your console is affected, the PlayStation 5 can become noisy, as the fans need to spin faster and more often to compensate, and the console can draw more power, then overheat and stop working, and shorten the life of your PS5 in the long run. The liquid metal can spill onto other parts of the motherboard (which can cause a short circuit), ruining the console even if it’s just sitting in the box waiting for someone to buy it. In the video below, it happened: the PlayStation 5 sat upright in its box for months waiting to be unboxed, but it wouldn’t boot. You can see the disassembled console at about 12 minutes in. The fault is not widely known, and not everyone checks for it during servicing.

Sony confirmed at CES (Consumer Electronics Show, the first technology trade show of the year) that more than 30 million PlayStation 5 had been sold so far. The last we heard was by September 30; Sony shipped 25 million units. According to Jim Ryan, president, and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), December was its strongest month ever.

Total sales for The Last of Us franchise are at more than 37 million, according to SIE and Naughty Dog, who also showed a concept image from the multiplayer The Last of Us spinoff (Factions?). “We’re looking ahead to The Last of Us’ 10th anniversary in June, and we’re so excited to share more with you about the future of this franchise. We’ll have some fun surprises for you along the way, but later this year, we will begin to offer you some details on our ambitious The Last of Us multiplayer game. With a team led by Vinit Agarwal, Joe Pettinati, and Anthony Newman, the project is shaping up to be a fresh, new experience from our studio, but one rooted in Naughty Dog’s passion for delivering incredible stories, characters, and gameplay” said Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann. A TV adaptation of The Last of Us will debut on HBO and HBO Max on January 15, with a PC port of The Last of Us Part I arriving on March 3, and interviews and behind-the-scenes looks at the making of both projects are expected.

The PlayStation 5 design flaw is surprisingly severe…

Source: Wololo, Gematsu, Gematsu

Do not put your Ps5 upright, here is the result the liquid moves and the freezes are there pic.twitter.com/A4Do3TkcXk

— Consoles System (@68Logic) January 4, 2023