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Sony hopes to lower PS4 failure rate further for UK launch

"It's a privilege to go first, but there are a few advantages of going second."

Sony hopes to lower the PlayStation 4 failure rate further for the console's UK launch.

PS4 launched two weeks ago in North America, and soon after reports came in of a "blinking blue light" issue that rendered the console unusable.

Sony said the number of PS4 units "dead on arrival" was one per cent the one million consoles that were sold within 24 hours of the North American launch. That amounted to around 10,000 units.

Now, two weeks later, and with the European launch upon us, Sony UK reckons it's been able to use the extra time to its advantage - and is aiming to get that failure rate down to as close to zero per cent as possible.

"I don't expect any major issues," Sony UK boss Fergal Gara told Eurogamer ahead of tonight's midnight launch.

"But obviously any game who's disappointed is a problem we take seriously. We are looking into causes of those low level problems - and there are certain learnings that have already been taken which means we can potentially further reduce that low level down to as close to zero as we can possibly get it.

"But let's be clear: the failure rate on PS4 is well within the region we see on PS3, which is considered a pretty bullet-proof machine. There is no evidence there to cause panic either for us or for gamers having any lack of confidence in picking up a PS4."

Despite his confidence, Gara said Sony had reserved some PS4 stock to make sure those who do have faulty consoles will see them replaced promptly.

"One thing we've done within our stock allocation is make sure we've got a pool of stock to deal with any 'dead on arrival' issues," he said.

"It's not a vast volume, because there's no evidence to suggest we need a vast volume to deal with that. But our consumer services helpline is there to support gamers and solve any problems that do emerge."

Gara said the advantage of launching two weeks after North America extended beyond the PS4 hardware, indicating games have benefited from "lots of fine tuning".

"[There has been] no major panic or changes required, but little bits of fine-tuning, not just on our side but also on the publishers' side," he said.

"So, some small little glitches on some games that can be ironed out, patched and tweaked before it comes into Europe.

"It's a privilege to go first, but there's actually quite a few advantages of going second. With the two week window, had there been anything serious, I'm not sure we would have fixed all of it in two weeks anyway. So the great news is there isn't anything serious."

Sony has already published troubleshooting advice for the blinking blue light PS4 issue.