Sony stock fell 2.75 percent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after the company was hit by unsubstantiated reports of many of the 200 PS3 consoles overheating at the 2006 Tokyo Game Show.

Macquarie Equities' David Gibson supposedly stated, "While the reason for this is unknown, we suspect it may be due to overheating as a result of enclosing the units and the high temperatures at the venue. We are concerned that such a problem has occurred so close to full production and is clearly negative news for the company."

Sony, however, begged to differ. They hit back straight away with a statement, by email, to the GameSpot website, by Dave Karraker, Sony Computer Entertainment America's senior director of corporate communications, which read, "If you read the report from Macquarie closely, you can see that their reports are unsubstantiated and that comments related to the alleged failure of PS3 units at TGS are also not attributed to a source."

Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (SCEI) also released a statement, backing up Karraker's comments, saying, "Despite the report from Macquarie Securities implying that they had heard of reports of PS3s needing to be rebooted at TGS, SCEI are not aware of any instances of this occurring at TGS, nor have we received any reports from third parties to such effect."

Sony, however, did state that, "The environmental conditions at TGS conspire to test any electrical item. In the case of PS3, the combination of pre-production software, running on pre-production debug units, enclosed in demonstration units without ventilation, and surrounded by so many eager fans that on Saturday and Sunday it was almost impossible to move, are bound to prove a challenge. If indeed, there was the occasional unit that needed rebooting, it was due solely to the adverse environmental conditions within the Hall and not to any more general problem with PS3."

Sony finished off stating, "On the Press Day on Friday, and throughout the weekend the PlayStation stand was inundated by specialist gaming media, the majority of whom would have noticed if there had been a general problem with console overheating...[The] PS3 does not suffer from an overheating problem."

So where did these supposed reports of overheating truly come from? Is there a problem or is it just a case of people trying to pore more pressure on Sony?
We'll have to wait and see what, if any, problems arise with the PS3 when it is released in about six or seven weeks in Japan and the US.
Let's hope everything goes smoothly at launch else Sony could truly lose everything when it comes to the gaming market.

Jason F Staff