Overheating Sony PS5 consoles suffer from melting USB ports at esports event

Thanks to AMD's efficient 7nm APU chipset based on the Zen 2 architecture, the Sony PlayStation 5 usually does not get too hot or loud even during prolonged gaming sessions, at least under normal circumstances. However, some PS5 consoles have now been pushed to their thermal limit at a notable e-sports event in Las Vegas, Nevada over the past weekend.

According to reports from Kotaku and other media outlets, several participants of the Evo 2023 tournament, which is all about so-called beat 'em ups and fighting games including Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat, complained that overheating PlayStation 5 consoles have caused material damage to their equipment. While the Sony console itself would have been pretty easy to replace, the special USB controllers used by professional gamers became the victims of these overburdened PS5.

For instance, one competitor describes a rather curious situation in a Reddit post that says his "opponent courteously took out my cord for me and out came with it the PS5 USB receiver", which he did not notice until he tried to plug in his PlayStation 5 controller for the next match. Apparently, only the rear USB ports of the overheating PS5 systems have been affected by this issue, which makes sense considering the close proximity to the Sony gaming console’s fan exhaust.

As a consequence of these incidents, aggravated participants went on Twitter and suggested a switch from the PlayStation 5 to other gaming platforms such as the PC or Xbox Series X. Sony itself has not yet reacted to this unfortunate situation. However, PS5 owners who use their console in a normal kind of way probably won’t have to worry too much about overheating and melting USB ports.

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