PlayStation 5 Display Console Spotted Overheating In Best Buy

With Sony busy making sure everything goes off without a hitch ahead of the PlayStation 5‘s release next week, addressing bad PR for the powerful new console is a nightmare scenario it could be doing without.

Sadly, however, even the best-laid plans can (and often do) go awry, and though these unfortunate circumstances aren’t a direct result of Sony dropping the ball, certain images making the rounds online right now threaten to undo what’s likely to be an otherwise successful product launch. While sales of both next-gen devices aren’t allowed to take place until street dates (November 10th for Xbox Series X|S and November 12th for PS5) arrive, various retailers around the US and elsewhere have had display units setup in-store in order to give customers a chance to try out the new tech early.

Twitter user Xzyliac, having recently stopped at their local Best Buy, discovered, however, that a display PS5 had ceased functioning, replacing its usual output with a warning message.

“Your PS5 is too hot,” reads the system error, which then guides the user to turn off their PS5 and “wait until the temperature goes down. Solid advice, but not exactly the sort one would want or expect to see from a luxury product priced at $499. The development is especially surprising in this case, too, as previous tear down videos showing all the internal components that make up each individual PS5 have revealed several countermeasures taken by Sony to avoid this exact issue.

Of course, it’s worth noting that, in this instance, at least, storage conditions were far from ideal. In order to prevent theft and/or tampering, display units such as these are often housed within thick plastic security shells. The assumption, then, is that the heat being emitted by the PS5 was prevented from dissipating correctly, leading to the situation above.

Ultimately, it won’t be until retail stock of PlayStation 5 begins to shift that the extent of the issue (or lack thereof) becomes known, but for what it’s worth, WGTC has already spent several hours putting Sony’s latest and greatest creation through its paces and encountered no such problems. See here for our initial impressions.