TheSony timer (ソニータイマー,Sonī taimā), orSony kill switch, is anurban legend that electronic devices produced bySony are equipped with atimer which, upon reaching a deliberately preset deadline, causes the product to stop functioning, forcing the user to buy a replacement.[1][3] The legend began in Japan in the 1980s and was later repeated in other countries.[1] The idea of products being designed to stop working after a period of time is today known asplanned obsolescence.
InJapan, the Sony timer spread around the late 1990s to early 2000s. Although there had never been any conclusive evidence which would confirm the legend, manyJapanese people believed its existence, and it was regularly used as a joke inmanga and posted on online message boards.[1] The legend remained confined to Japan until 2006 when there was a recall of over 4 millionDelllaptops equipped with battery packs containing defective Sonylithium ion cells, bringing back the legend of planned obsolescence among the Japanese people, who accused theTokyo company.[1][3]
The problem for Sony was the rumor's impact: as the company came out from theJapanese economic miracle and thekaizen ideology, it was in a very delicate situation which it tried to contain in every way, but the rumor inevitably came to the knowledge of consumers outside of Japan via theInternet.[1] Although sales of thePlayStation 3 were not particularly affected by this urban legend, it did negatively affect sales of SonyVaio laptop computers which, since 2007, were viewed with increasing suspicion by consumers. In addition to this,Google Trends signaled an increasing number of Internet searches indicating how Japanese purchasers found various problems with Vaio laptops.[1]
A worsening of the situation occurred when, officially due to asoftware bug, it came to light that manyBraviatelevisions were predisposed with an operating time of about 1200 hours before they stopped functioning;[1][3] Stranger still was that, used for a period of about 3 hours a day, such televisions would stop working exactly afterwarranty expired.[1][3] The Tokyo company denied any direct responsibility and announced to releasesoftware patches as a solution,[1][3] desperately trying to limit the rumors about the problem before they spread toEurope, where the company's presence was very strong, and admitting: "Our products are not designed to work badly".
However, the Sony timer legend had already spread widely across theWorld Wide Web, becoming part of theInternet culture itself.[1][3]
The phenomenon resurfaced the mid 2010s when it was discovered thatPlayStation 3 consoles were failing to update due to the console relying on its WiFi &Bluetooth modules for updates. The only way to fix this issue is to replace theWi-Fi / Bluetooth module with tools such as Micro-soldering.[4]
The legend resurfaced again in 2021 when it was discovered that an anti-cheat measure inPlayStation Network had the potential to render games unplayable on the PlayStation 3,PlayStation 4 andPlayStation 5 video game consoles due to their reliance on maintaining a mandatory accurate date and time setting, whether through connection to the network or aCMOS battery, in a phenomenon known as theC-bomb.[5][6] Following outcry over the issue, Sony released afirmware update for the PS4 in late September 2021 that resolved the problem for this console,[7] and did the same for the PS5 over a month later.[8]
