PS4 stock available in UK for hardware replacements

PlayStation 4 stock is pretty low in the UK, but Sony has kept a stockpile in reserve to ensure customers unfortunate enough to experience hardware failures can get replacement units as soon as possible.

Speaking to Eurogamer ahead of the console's launch last Friday, Sony UK boss Fergal Gara said Sony hopes not to be caught short.

"One thing we've done within our stock allocation is make sure we've got a pool of stock to deal with any 'dead on arrival' issues," he said.

"It's not a vast volume, because there's no evidence to suggest we need a vast volume to deal with that. But our consumer services helpline is there to support gamers and solve any problems that do emerge."

Gara said that he wasn't expecting any "major issues".

"We are looking into causes of those low level problems - and there are certain learnings that have already been taken which means we can potentially further reduce that low level down to as close to zero as we can possibly get it," he said.

"But let's be clear: the failure rate on PS4 is well within the region we see on PS3, which is considered a pretty bullet-proof machine. There is no evidence there to cause panic either for us or for gamers having any lack of confidence in picking up a PS4."

Despite hardware failure horror stories out of the North American launch, the PS4 sold gangbusters in the UK, becoming the nation's fastest-selling console.

Thanks, Joystiq.