The PS4 does move if you press down on it. Is it a problem? No. I made a video to demonstrate the “wobble” issue, and what you can do to fix it.
If you’re not familiar with the PS4’s wobble, when Giant Bomb did an unboxing earlier this week, they noticed that the console would move if you pushed down on the glossy side. Naturally, in the days before a massive console launch, commenters on neoGAF and Reddit began speculating over what was perceived as a potential design flaw.
You can see in the video that the PS4 does in fact move, but only if you press down on it, which is not a thing I expect most people will do. Even if you feel the need to do so, the console moves so little that I doubt you’d be able to damage it just by wobbling.
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43 responses to “No, The PS4 Doesn’t Have A ‘Wobbling’ Problem”
Only a problem if it starts eating discs
seeing as they have to install it may not be an issue
You’ve got to admit, as unimportant as it is, it’s a curious design flaw. How does that even happen with the amount of time they put into designing these things? The USB ports being in a place that makes them annoying to plug an irregular shaped USB device to them is an oversight, but this? You can only really chalk it up to someone drawing a line in the wrong spot when doing the CAD work.
If you watch the GB unboxing, the console has two rubber strip feet, one in the centre and another on the matte side. On a flat surface, the console sits fine but if you press it, the centre rubber foot acts as a fulcrum, unbalancing the thing.
I don’t think it was an oversight, but a deliberate design choice. When using a stand, the lack of a rubber foot on the glossy side kept the top surface sheer and uninterrupted. I’m guessing Sony just doesn’t count on people pressing down on one side of the PS4 or stacking another device or console on top of it.
EDIT: Seems someone was thinking exactly the same thing below.
If I press hard on the side of my 1500 KG Ford Falcon, It will wobble as well!
From someone not getting a PS4 – I can honestly say it looks like a small design/manufacture flaw. But honestly small enough that I don’t think anyone should even be worried about it – unless that flaw causes read issues on the Blu-ray. But from what I’ve seen the vibration of the blu-ray/HDD should not cause any problems.
In short – this is a non event.
Why does it matter, I’m sure many things like Aircrafts have design flaws but they still do their job, fly.
As long as the console does its actual goal to play games why does this matter?
Until that “design flaw” rips off the wing and kills everyone onboard.
You watch, two weeks from now, there’ll be a report of the PS4 having so much wobble it flew off the table and slaughtered a family of four.
I heard it was 5
oh… here we go again with the “mass murder resulting from video games” mantra.
No, this time it’s “mass murder resulting from a video game CONSOLE” mantra. Ever used the PS2? That thing was like a gigantic Lego brick, waiting to fuck your foot up. Killed at least 30 million in the great console wars of the early 2000s.
Concord had a design flaw.
How?
Before the *only* crash they ever had, they were regarded as the safest plane ever built.
They just hemorrhaged money like nothing else.
Well to be fair it did have one design floor: an insufficiently-protected central fuel bay. But you’re right, the Concorde was the greatest and safest commercial airliner ever built. Also the coolest.
They were actually set to resume service in 2001 but just days before they did, September 11 happened.
Concorde did not have a design flaw, The incident you’re probably referring to is flight 4590.
Flight 4590 was a charter destined for New York’s JFK airport on July 25th, 2000, carrying mostly German tourists headed to South America. As it neared takeoff speed, the Concorde struck a thin metal strip on the runway, causing one of its tires to burst. The strip had fallen from the underside of a Continental Airlines DC-10 that had departed minutes earlier, bound for Houston. Chunks of the burst tire impacted the Concorde’s wing at tremendous velocity, resulting in a powerful shock wave within the wing’s fuel tank that ultimately punctured it. Gases from the engines then ignited leaking fuel, touching off a huge fire.
Yeah thats the one, but the show I watched on it was all “this could easily happen to any concord etc” thats just what I remember. Ill take your word over my own however as Im not a huge plane guy.
This is meant to be a joke video. Ease up everyone haha.
We aren’t commenting the fact the video is stupid. In fact I think it is funny. Its the fact people make a huge thing about the console doing a little wobble, it doesn’t effect anything at all.
It doesn’t even look like a flaw. When you push down on the front corner, the opposite front corner lifts up, which means that their is still a rubber stop in the middle somewhere acting as a fulcrum.
This suggests that the rubber stops for the left side of the machine are actually closer to the middle of the system [weight distribution probably], and pushing on one side acts as a level to lift it.
It’s definitely a design flaw. The feet on the other two corners are what it tips on so one or both of the corners have feet that are shorter than they need to be (or the corners that stay on the table are longer than they should be). It’s a totally insignificant design flaw that has no practical impact on anything the console does but it’s a design flaw none the less.
Worst case scenario both the corners have short feet and the things tilts with the disc tray ever so slightly raised and at an angle that won’t impact anything. If that’s the case you may notice a wobble when you put a game in. I really doubt this is going to be the RRoD of this generation. =P
It isn’t a design flaw i the context you’re saying. There are no shorter feet, the issue is that the 2 rubber feet on one side are 1/3rd the way deep to match with the line that splits the console. Therefore the problem isn’t uneven feet, but rather the feet not all being exactly in the corner (causing a wobble if pressed hard on the side with the feet further in).
That’s a flaw. The opposite corner should be the one that lifts and the 2 adjoining should push down as well trying to act as a pivot point. Except that is not what is happening here, he’s pushing on the outside of the pad first time and within the support on the second.
what?
It’s going to do that every time I sit on it? 🙁
I’m more worried my drinks are going to spill.
Not saying this is true, but it’s on a wooden desk? Anything that isn’t particleboard is usually far from perfectly level heh.
Or you can… you know… not push down on the top of your console… like you didn’t this generation.
Pfft. That’s so last gen.
You’re crazy, man. Crazy.
*edit* changed my mind he’s applying force in different spots each time.
It’s a minor wobble, sure, but if it’s enough to allow the console to vibrate when the disc drive spins up it could get pretty damned annoying.
hahaha
So basically people have figured out that because the rubber feet are set in a triangle configuration on a square base, that placing enough force on the edges shifts the centre of mass enough to make the PS4 tip.
Genius!
/s
maybe the table’s wonky.
Maybe get the wiggles to do a song about it 😉
It’s because they strangely put only 3 feet on the bottom of the console instead of 4.
It’s a non-issue once it’s sitting in your entertainment unit, but it’s a very very strange design decision.
I actually know the answer to this and why there are only 3.
I would post the reason but knowing the nature of how some people react to the most trivial things on the internet I have decided not to.
It makes perfect sense, and i know that some neckbeard is going to huff his arms about and call it stupid.
anyone that gives it some thought might actually figure out the answer for themselves.
Oh! I know! Because it’s the Playstation THRE- oh wait.
Um…
BECAUSE IT’S THE FUTURE OF 3D TELEVI- oh.
Yeah, I got nothing.
Because only paying for 3 is cheaper than paying for 4, and Sony is that cheap/spewing money that fast? S’all I got. I think it is a vastly overblown ‘scandal’ but the game industry loves scandal and trumped up stupidness as much as any other, much as most try to deny it.
While it doesn’t bother me, I’ll be honest. I don’t know why.
Because the ps4 only needs 3.
How often would someone need to press down on that side of the PS4?
Does anyone actively get up from gaming and just go “hmm guess i’ll push this side of my console down for no apparent reason”
Why would they need to in the first place?
I have only ever touched my Wii U console once and that was when I was setting it up, tbh I don’t even see the console itself since it’s sitting behind a tv cabinet door.
Like G-man said below
Its like a 3 wheel office chair, it work perfectly fine the same as a 4 wheel office chair.
FLAW. No debate.
No ones pointeded out it only wobbles if ypu push on it. It sits perfectly level otherwise. Hell if I push on the back of my tv it falls over. Oh god design flaw.
Off topic: awesome shirt, Steve.
I would like to ask the experts here if having the PS4 standing by its four corners on four MIlan triangular erasers is safe for the console. I read that it helps to prevent overheating when working horizontal. Sorry for my bad english. Thank you very much!
It’s not a “Design flaw”.
It was purposely designed that way to allow air flow under the console when horizontal without impacting vertical stand use. It’s actually brilliant.