Sony Investigating Complaints of Bricked PlayStation 3 Consoles After Installing 4.45 Firmware

Woe is the PlayStation 3 gamer who jumped at the chance to install Sony's newest firmware update, version 4.45. After it was made available, it didn't take long for complaints to surface on Twitter, Reddit, and Sony's own support forum lamenting the fact that the update was bricking consoles, turning their gaming boxes into very expensive paperweights. Sony has since rolled back the firmware to the previous version (4.41) released in April as it looks into what went wrong.

"Hi guys, we're aware of reports that the recent PS3 update (4.45) has caused. We have temporarily taken 4.45 offline and are investigating," Sony's PlayStation Europe division said in a statement on Twitter.


Sony's made similar statements across the web, in some cases apologized for the inconvenience. An apology doesn't fix the borked consoles, however, and it's unclear if they're able to be fixed via the console's safe mode boot option or if it will ultimately need to be sent in for repair . Ironically, the 4.45 firmware was supposed to improve system stability and add Trophy notification options.

Talk about bad timing. With all the controversy surrounding Microsoft's Xbox One, including the price of the console ($499) and used game policy (publishers have all the control), Sony was enjoying playing the part of the 'good guy' for once.