Final Fantasy XIII

Keep in mind that if Sony and SE lose the case they also have to pay for the litigation fees incurred by the plaintiffs in the class action. We all know the ridiculous rates attorneys can charge. $5M is actually not an unreasonable figure for a class action and regardless, it's up to the court to award damages for the plaintiffs. As by nature of these sort of cases, $5M is just a quoted figure and the actual awarded damages will likely be far less if the court decides in favor of the plaintiffs.
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PSN: lithium332

"It would be a simple thing to test. Get 10 of these supposed magic FFXIII discs that break PS3's, buy 10 brand new systems, and play them with the discs in front of the jury for X number of hours. Get 10 copies of a "normal" game and buy 10 brand new systems and play them with the discs for X number of hours. If these FFXIII discs have magic powers to break PS3's, then we should at least see some sort of trend where the PS3's playing FFXIII are breaking more frequently than otherwise (although this is a small sample size, to do this for real you would probably need to do 100 PS3's and 100 system breaking FF games). If no clear trend is found between the two groups, then at the very least Square would be absolved because it would show that their game is no better or worse than another game at harming PS3's."

A sample of 20 isn't enough to determine it though.

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Things I dislike: People that talk about religion on video game forums and people that refer to FF4 and FF6 as FF2 and FF3 without explaining it.

Up front: Yes, any Blu-Ray movie will degrade the PS3's lens unusually quickly. The PS3 was not built to be a Blu-Ray playback device. It was built as a polymorphic media device that temporarily reads Blu-Rays. But FF13 is special in that it is a dual-layered Blu-Ray disc. (I can't name a single Blu-Ray movie that is dual-layered; Avatar, for example, is a pretty long movie, and its 1080p version is only 11GB. A regular [single-layer] Blu-Ray can hold 25GB of data, while a dual-layered one can hold 50GB.) So when a PS3 is playing back FF13's CG, its lens is enduring significantly more stress than it would if it was trying to play Avatar.

Is playing FF13 OUTSIDE of CG more stressful, or as stressful, than single-layer Blu-Ray playback? I don't know the answer to that question. That, if this lawsuit takes off, will have to be investigated.

Now about the PS3.. Despite the fact that it is advertised as being able to play Blu-Ray movies, the PS3 boasts some extremely expensive technology. To reduce costs, Sony has used the cheapest parts available. (Same scenario as the PS2, same scenario as the Nintendo Entertainment System. Companies will use the cheapest parts they can.) This includes a weak laser that wasn't built to play dual-layered Blu-Rays in the longterm.

Without getting too technical, Blu-Ray "reading" is different from Blu-Ray "playback". When the PS3 reads a Blu-Ray, its lens gets the information off the disc and sends it to the PS3's RAM or hard drive, so that the PS3 can process and render the data. After this transfer is complete, the lens stops reading and rests. Your Blu-Ray disc literally sits in the console doing nothing until, for example, you want to leave the Archylte Steppes and go to Maharaba. During that loading screen, your lens reads the disc again, sends Maharaba's data to the rest of the hardware, and then it goes back to rest once Maharaba has loaded.

On the other hand, Blu-Ray movies cannot be stored in RAM or on the hard drive without hacking your PS3. All Blu-Ray movies, and all game CG, is played back in realtime off of the Blu-Ray disc. So Avatar--what is that, a 3 hour movie? When you watch Avatar all in one sitting, your lens is constantly accessing the Blu-Ray for the ENTIRE 3 hours. That is extreme stress on the lens. The lens is never allowed to rest until you turn the movie off. If the PS3's lens was well-built, and built to play Blu-Ray movies over the longterm, it would be fine. But the lens is cheap hardware. If you play the Avatar movie once every day, your PS3 is going to die very quickly. (Not picking on Avatar, it's just the most popular Blu-Ray. Any Blu-Ray movie will work the same way.)

Not only does FF13 have a small amount of CG, but it is a dual-layered Blu-Ray, which means the lens has to work twice as hard to access its data. The ONLY other commercial dual-layered Blu-Ray is Metal Gear Solid 4, which copies most of its data onto the PS3 hard drive so that your lens can rest often. FF13 copies no data to the hard drive, so your lens will not be able to rest as often. That combined with the fact that FF13 pushes the PS3's graphics/processing/rendering hardware to the limit means your lens is going to be working really hard WHILE the rest of your PS3 hardware is potentially overheating. It's an extremely unique and dangerous combination. Not only is your lens being stressed, but overheating can potentially warp the lens completely.

My suggestion to everyone who plays FF13 often is to make sure your PS3 has a lot of breathing room, turn on a fan/air conditioning while you're playing, and DO NOT let your FF13 idle on its introduction CG screen; that is the worst thing you can do. You also want to give the PS3 a 15 minute rest at least once every 3 hours.
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Final Fantasy XIII: Legacy of Lindzei - The Sequel Is Here, 05-17-2010
http://lindzei.livejournal.com/

Ok they fuss about this situation, but what about when Fallout was freezing PS3.
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Why do today what you can put off altogether.
Black Ace FC: 2708-2824-9888

Wow, thanks Chickenhawked. That's some interesting stuff. I'm sure I've put well over 200 hours into this game across several files, and I have yet to experience any type of freezing or performance issues. But then again, my PS3 is fairly new (just bought it back in February). I also made sure to give it a lot of breathing room. Had it in a closed cabinet before I noticed that it got really hot in there while the PS3 ran, so I moved it to an open shelf. Hopefully it'll continue to run fine.
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Gamestop employees are creepy. A few weeks ago this girl that works there was deepthroating a broomstick while two male employees watched in awe. -NihilusReborn

Wouldn't be surprised if the older consoles have worse overheating/lens-warping problems than the new ps3 slims.

Hmm. This is interesting that the FFXIII disc does interact with the PS3 hardware in a unique way to basically turn it into a first rev x-box 360. I had assumed this was like the Borat thing--people saw something that made a lot of money and immediately called their lawyers.
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"I wonder how old mrklarryd is. Get out, old guy. I am among the elite unlike you."-Pagrash_tak/Guyinblack25/Majophase 6/1/2010

THIS GUY IS DUMB!!!

Its not Sony's fault or Square Enix's fault just because this fool cant take care of his PS3.
I had this problem before, its not Final fantasy 13 but MGS4 bit long ago for my 60gb. I am 100% sure (or above 100 percent) that it is totally not Square Enix's fault but this dumb idiot's fault for not taking care of his ps3 right. It wouldn't be Sony's fault either, Sony makes superior systems. Only an idiot would wreck it. I was an idiot to not take care of my ps3 long ago also, but I know this guy's problem because I experienced it.
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PSN : itzjohnson

You know this guys problem? You've been to his place and seen how he treats his PS3?

[This message was deleted at the request of a moderator or administrator]

Yep, I've spent about 200 hours (across various playthroughs) on FF13 as well, and I've only experienced one freeze so far. (Compare to 3+ freezes in Assassin's Creed 2, and 1 freeze playing Uncharted, and 1 freeze playing Uncharted 2.) But I have my PS3 out in the complete open, and my fan is always on, and I generally play videogames at night, when it's pretty cool/cold. I also always let my PS3 rest when I've been playing it for a while.

Just a bonus piece of info: The PS3, unlike modern computers, is built in a way where turning it on/off does NOT stress the hardware. So if you aren't using your PS3, turn it off! It's built to be turned on and off often.
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Final Fantasy XIII: Legacy of Lindzei - The Sequel Is Here, 05-17-2010
http://lindzei.livejournal.com/