I can see how this is a scary situation for anyone owning or waiting to own one, but this is kind of unprecedented. I've never seen tech on Amazon, factoring in the discrepancy of satisfied absentees against protesting dissatisfied customers, that's almost 50/50 split between factory fresh and paperweights. Ever.
I think what DistortionOfReality was trying to tell you is that you don't have perspective on how the launches were during 1995, 2000, 2004, 2006 were in terms of internet presence. Disinformation speed was slower back in 1995 and 2000. You relied on magazines (yeah, those paper things). Your use of terms like "50/50" and "unprecedented" no different than the "doom and gloom" we say during the 2006 PS3 launch and the 2007 RROD eras. The internet was just buzzing with outlandish claims of the end of Sony and the embarrassment of Microsoft in the run up to 2007's denial of anything being wrong with the 360 design (chip).
The difference between then and now is that the production chains, distributors, overnight shipping tracking for the manifest are lighting quick today and it allows Sony (or any other global company) to stop supply chains within hours and replace inventory overnight. If Sony shipped 2 million PS4s to the USA for the holidays and the 0.4% failure rate was allowed to go on until December 24th, that would be 4000 broken PS4s. Now I ask you, would you prefer Sony to wait until after Christmas so they can recall the larger defective batch (4000+) or should they nip it in the bud now when the supply inventory is smaller?
I suspect that if the was a bad batch in the production line has to do something to do with the HDMI port (bent pin?). I'd just be speculating. Either way, the point is to stop the shipments and replace them promptly.
The true failure rate is not the launch batches, but the longevity of the device over the first eighteen months. Devices as complex as the PS4 or XB1 are not reasonably expected to have normal use failures until after their 4th-5th year when the 5-10% failure rate starts to kick in (for most devices such as these). Then, after the 4th year, the newer batches improve in design slightly and the cycle starts again. That's why Microsoft got bit so hard in 2007. They already had millions of 360s in circulation. So, would you rather have 33%-54% failure rate (360s estimated RROD failure rate) after 18 months with 10 million consoles in circulation or would you rather than 0.4% at launch?
Even though you might go to sleep a night Sony (also Microsoft) not "sleep" during their launches so they can monitor any thing that goes wrong with the production line and communicate with their distributors and vendors to recall any problems that arise.
I didn't pre-order. I waited until today. Yeah, I got one!
Last time round I had to wait until January 2007. This tells me the supply chain is much larger (due to Sony delaying the Japan launch) which increased the production number for the US. This is their main priority this time around. Sony neglected the American FPS audience for the PS3. Infinity Ward and EA are happy they are getting attention and the development platform to make solid PS games this time around.