[Update: Added new issues experienced by users as of 22nd November]

While recent news of next-gen hardware failure turned out false for one camp, it may not be as such for the other.

First up: PS5 users are facing a “Queued For Download” bug that prevents them from completing downloads for games. This has happened for the PS5 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (via IGN).

Other users have reported the same issue for the following PS5 games: Demon’s Souls, Spider-Man Remastered, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and Godfall. The only fix for the Call of Duty issue? Do a factory reset, according to Activision. [Update] Sony offered a workaround for this issue:

1. Start up your PS5 in safe mode (turn on the console by holding down the power button for several seconds).
2. Then select the option to rebuild the database.

Next, a number of reports and tweets online have stated that their newly-owned PS5s have been emitting loud buzzing and coil whines. The sounds seem to be coming from the next-gen console’s disc drive, though other reports claim that the Digital Edition also churn out the same kind of noise. That’s the version without the disc drive, FYI.

pic.twitter.com/irUKXYgnxe

— Shatty McKracken (@ShattyMckracken) November 14, 2020

https://twitter.com/andrewmagana94/status/1327513816372969478?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1327513816372969478%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lowyat.net%2F2020%2F226169%2Fearly-adopters-report-issues-with-their-new-ps5-console%2F

Here’s a PS5 running the Demon’s Souls remake.

According to Twitter poster andres Magana, the buzzing only occurred when playing PS5 games via disc. It stops when it’s idle or used outside of gaming, like browsing through the new PS store. Though to be fair, that is not as bad as the next problem: console bricking.

According to one message from ACG’s Jeremy Penter (via LowYat.net), his PS5 is dead due to a restart glitch that bricked his system. How does that work? Say if the PS5’s rest mode causes a game like Spider-Man: Miles Morales to freeze, users will need to do a complete restart of the console. Doing this will activate the console’s storage restore process; apparently, this may cause the aforementioned glitch in rare cases.

P.1. At this time my PS5 is 100% dead. I was having the storage rebuild issues others reported but mine escalated to full errors and network issues/boot. Sony and I were working through troubleshooting when it died completely. So at this time I will be moving content around…

— ACG (@JeremyPenter) November 10, 2020

Yikes. There’s also an alleged issue with the PS5’s GPU & its related inputs, according to this Twitter thread via Yohosie:

My playstation 5 experience is going awesome so far ? pic.twitter.com/gyGxABSojq

— Dawn 'Yohosie' Hosie (@yohosiefgc) November 16, 2020

Other new issues as of 22nd November include the console’s system crashing when in suspend mode. The PS5 does this if you pulled the power plug out while it was running. But this does happen even if you did not; the PS5 will beep and go through an extended boot-up sequence. The solution? Turn off Rest mode entirely and closing all of the games that are active before shutting the system down.

Another big one is the game defaulting to the PS4 version even when using a PS5 disc. This happened with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Also, the occasional freezes and crashes do happen.

Keep in mind that most of these posts are all done during the weekend; they may have been fixed at this time of writing. Or not. Hopefully, PlayStation is on the ball, and at least will take these into account for the eventual Southeast Asian launches in Singapore, Malaysia, and the rest. They’re probably on damage control given recent Southeast Asia non-announcements and their deafening silence for the past month or so.

Long story short, this does suck for folks who bought their PS5s on launch day itself overseas. But as some have said time and again since buying the Xbox 360 at launch and seeing the infamous “red ring of death”, early adoption of next-gen consoles equals being a company’s “beta tester”.