PS5 overheats in Best Buy — this is what you shouldn't do

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Some like it hot, but not the PS5. That’s because a unit popped in a kiosk at Best Buy threw up overheating errors after it got a little hot and bothered in its cosy enclosure.

Images posted by Twitter user Xzyliac have been doing the rounds online, showing the PS5 in question displaying a message that reads: “Your PS5 is too hot. Turn off your PS5, and wait until the temperature goes down.” This is a rather pronounced warning that you’ll need to be careful with where and how you store your PS5.

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The PS5 is the largest of the next-generation consoles, dwarfing even the relatively large Xbox Series X. And one of the reasons for that is it has a large fan to keep it cool; that's handy when it has 10.28 teraflops of graphics power on tap.

pic.twitter.com/WbexHJPELlNovember 5, 2020

However, it would appear that the cooling system will only work well if the PS5 has plenty of room to breathe.

Unsurprisingly, being trapped in a closed box with no room to let hot air escape isn’t the best setup for Sony’s next-gen console. If we were Best Buy, we’d have put vent holes in the box, but we’re tech journalists not retail gurus.

Now this isn’t exactly a realistic way people will store their PS5 consoles. But it does show how there could be a risk of overheating if you put the PS5 in an enclosed entertainment unit — maybe to hide away the divisive design — or on a cramped entertainment shelf.

All this means that when you get a PS5, you’ll not only have to figure out how it’s sheer size will fit into your entertainment unit, but also how well ventilated that area is. For people with compact entertainment units or small apartments, that might be a tricky proposition.

The PS5 is being released on November 12 in the U.S. and November 19 in the U.K., all at a time when temperatures are dropping and people start turning on central heating. So it’ll be interesting to see if an overall rise in ambient temperature could cause the PS5 to start running a little hot.

Roland Moore-Colyer a Managing Editor at Tom’s Guide with a focus on news, features and opinion articles. He often writes about gaming, phones, laptops and other bits of hardware; he’s also got an interest in cars. When not at his desk Roland can be found wandering around London, often with a look of curiosity on his face.