It rarely pays to be an early adopter, and that’s a frustrating sentence to write: hundreds of indie developers rely heavily on users willing to test and guide their studios to a finished project that would otherwise never be able to cross the finish line, without the backing of those users willing to dabble in the term of ‘Early Access‘.

Yet many users that have managed to get their hands on a PlayStation 5 already have begun reporting a frightening issue with Sony‘s PlayStation 5 that circles around Treyarch‘s Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (a bit of a mouthful) and users are taking turns between pointing the blame at the title, and pointing it at Sony while some posit they rushed the release of the PlayStation 5.

In the event that Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is the only title crashing you PlayStation 5, know that you aren’t alone. Also understand, based on what we’ve been able to glean from social media forums, that Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is currently the only title crashing the PlayStation 5, and if you continue playing it could very well brick your entire system.

If your system has been bricked by Cold War, it’s recommended that you reach out to Sony: multiple users that have confirmed the problem have also stated that their console is being replaced by Sony.

https://twitter.com/RealBlameTruth/status/1333488009103233024

https://twitter.com/tony7star/status/1334523158800576513

Some are reporting that other titles are possibly responsible for bricking as well: Demon’s Souls has entered the conversation intermittently

https://twitter.com/thislukesmith/status/1331816131049312257

https://twitter.com/thislukesmith/status/1332407315367006208

Far more readily reported, however, has gamers pointing fingers at Treyarch and the newest iteration of Call of Duty.

https://twitter.com/RealBlameTruth/status/1333235301410549761

For the time being, until Sony eventually gets around to addressing the issue(no accounts readily found ran by Sony have officially stated that this problem is becoming far larger than it originally seemed), it is strongly recommended to avoid playing Cold War on the PlayStation 5 at the very least. It may prove to be an abundance of caution, but precisely how reliable the PlayStation 5 actually is has absolutely been called into question.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has a ‘PlayStation first’ mentality that they’ve readily stated and stood by; some game modes won’t even be arriving on other platforms until the distant future, which makes the current bevy of reports all the more concerning. How does a title that was apparently designed to take advantage of the PlayStation 5 brick the system without further calling into question the stability of the platform?

This is being added to a myriad of other issues with the PlayStation 5: discs refusing in eject, an HDD glitch causing crashes, multiple titles causing crashes and reboots, overheating: this is not a pleasant look.

Users that are struggling with the PlayStation 5 bricking (meaning that it won’t turn on) or constantly crashing and turning off are urged to attempt to reach out to Sony’s support either online or via a phone system at 1-800-345-7669. Bear in mind, however, that all reports have stated that attempting to get a hold of anyone is a maddening endeavor.