Video game consoles can be prone to all sorts of issues and at EVO Japan during the Guilty Gear Strive grand final last weekend, one of the PS5 units at the forefront of the event allegedly collapsed under the pressure.
The USA representative RedDitto managed to fight his way out of the losers bracket of this competition and make it to the grand final but it all fell apart when he started having some issues during the crowning match.
While it could still be tied to controller and adapter problems, according to multiple claims coming out of the event, the PS5’s were effectively cooked after a whole day of use. And this mixed with the hotter temperatures within the event venue led to the perfect storm.
This completely took the wind out of not only RedDitto’s game, but also detracted from what should have been a grand occasion against his Korean opponent Daru_I-No. It resulted in the match being paused for prolonged periods as the troubleshooting began. By the time the fight got underway again, the USA competitor had already dropped a few sets and the damage had been done.
You can see in the official video upload a user has tagged the 7:37 mark as the moment when the PS5 supposedly “overheats” and the match comes to yet another halt. Spectators also voiced their disappointment and further claims from fighting game fans note how it happened in other competitions at the same event. Over on social media, RedDitto joked at the time about the PS5 “melting” his adapter.
It's led to some mixed responses from the fighting game community – with a lot of feedback suggesting the event should at least regularly swap out the units while demanding measures be taken going forward as it’s becoming a “very common occurrence”.
“Tournaments should not be leaving PS5s with their terrible cooling system on for 10+ hours and expect no consequences. Measures need to be taken by TOS because this is becoming a very common occurrence,” said one comment in response to RedDitto's post about the match.
Fellow professional fighting game player ‘Punk’, who won Street Fighter 6’s EVO Championship in 2024, also encountered some issues at EVO Japan on the weekend after an alleged PlayStation 5 "malfunction”. The same talent voiced his frustrations about "overheating" PS5s determining the outcome of matches.
Sony obviously owns EVO now so this isn’t exactly the kind of situation you want to see playing out at its own event or showing up at such a pivotal moment. These players often commit their life to make a career out of it, so it's crushing to see a technical problem arise in a professional environment.