I got my PS4 from Amazon on Saturday afternoon, and it was dead by Sunday evening.

I was finishing up a session with my digital copy of Infamous when tragedy occurred. I held the PS button on the controller to bring up the menu and close out of the game when, all of a sudden, a loud clicking noise came from within the bowels of the console. The horrible noise lasted mere seconds before an eerie silence took its place. The console had powered itself down.

Before I could process what had happened, I rushed to my PS4's side to see if it was all right. I ran my finger down the center of its crease, hoping for that familiar beep. I held my breath until... The sound caused my head to whip toward the television screen in anticipation of the PlayStation logo. It never came.

A blue light filled the dark room. It was moving up and down the spine of the PS4. The undulating motions made me feel almost sea sick. I held the power button and shut my eyes, opening them only after I was sure the sickening light had gone. Again and again I tried to coax the console back to life. Each time the familiar beep bringing me a moment of hope before the pulsating blue light replaced it with dread. My finger hovered over the power button one last time before falling still. I slowly curled it back into a fist and conceded that all hope was lost for the infant console.

It felt wrong requesting a replacement so soon after my PS4 passed away. It wasn't even cold, yet. Repacking it for return felt like some sort of terrible anti-Christmas. It was difficult to do but, carefully putting it back in its box exactly as it had been the day before provided a small amount of closure.

As I wait for the new PS4 to arrive, all I can do is hope that this was just a fluke, and I won't have to relive that horrible nightmare ever again.

Hang in there duder, I went through a similar thing with my xbox one. My condolences.

RIP PS4.

...yup.

And people say hyperbole isn't entertaining ...

Tough break, duder. I've had a few scares with my own PS4.

Every now and then, I'll walk by the powered off console and notice it's spit it out the latest disc inside. It's creepy.

A few times mine would refuse to start up, as well.

No one deserves to have their console brick, fortunately Sony is pretty quick with getting a new one out to their costumers.

@ratcabbage: That really really sucks. But let me say that your post was enjoyable to read, even though the story told was sad. You write quite well, I actually paused my podcast after the first few sentences

@basm321 said:

Thanks! That's high praise. I rarely pause a podcast for anything.

I can't believe that this is still happening a year into the console's life. I checked the manufacturing date on the back and it was only May 2014!

Oh, well. On the plus side, my replacement PS4 gets here today and if my luck holds out I'll be able to write the sequel!

I'm amazed at how long my fatty PS3 has survived, except for the occasional hiccup here and there (nothing that a safe mode hasn't fixed). That said, I'm very jumpy of my launch PS4 and almost everytime something odd occurs, I get that "Oh crap, this is it then..." reaction.

Damn man. That sucks... Good luck with the replacement!

Last week I experienced powering the console up, getting just the xmb background. No icons. Controller did respond. Home button worked. After three restarts I got the familiar "rebuilding system" message and it booted properly. No indication of problems the previous evening. Scary. Needs more stability updates.

"I don't give a shit that the Russians have launched their nukes, I have to finish listening to the Giant Bomb podcast, I'll flee to safety later, gooooood."

I'm totally with @basm321 the writing was really fun to read. You captured the sinking gut 'oh shit oh shit please turn on' feeling of something like this happening while at the same time retaining the 'Its not like my house burned down, I can have a laugh' feeling as well. Good job duder.