Favorite Sony Gaffe?

Not sure if it counts as a gaffe, but I was rather pissed they removed PS3 backwards compatibility.
I still don't understand why. To cut costs? I was willing to pay extra for that feature.

the fact that new blu-rays come with a warning notice that in order for it to play, my player might need an update?

honestly, the day i am unable to play a blu-ray i bought, on my blu-ray player because it needs an update which isnt available, i'll throw all the blu-ray junk on ebay and just enjoy my network media streamer..

Well, the reason I consider them quality products is because, in my experience, they are. I had a Vaio SZ1HP which worked without problems for 4 years! In fact, the only reason I stopped using it was because performance was lacking already (for the latest releases in tv shows I could see some flickering).
For 4 years this laptop went back and forth with me every day, going inside my bag, being thrown to the ground and it did not fail on me. By the end the fans were noisy, the battery was totally dead (caused most likely by the shitty charger I bought after 3 years, because until then it still had 1 hour of battery or so), some small parts of the plastic shell were broken and I had two dead pixels (who showed up late in its life), but the computer itself worked flawlessly (running Ubuntu without problems and Windows 7 ok too). In fact, it's still here, occasionally used by the friend who wants to check his mail.

The only reason I did not buy another Vaio after was the price of the Z series... I took a look at the P series but it did not satisfy me (I'm into 13'' laptops).

PS - I know this is just anecdotal evidence, but just because you had a bad experience it doesn't mean everyone had. I had a very good one indeed!

So the signs of a quality product is noisy fans, dead battery, dead charger (why else buy a new one?), broken shell and dead pixels?

i think the only reason ps2 backwards compatability was included in the ps3 was to help drive adoption rate for the ps3. as ps3 adoption went up, then ps2 backwards compatability was phased out, until it was gone and the ps3 stood on its own.

it's not like sony really wants you to have a single device to play all their games on - they just wanted the new item to have a better sales ratio until a critical mass of buyers had been achieved.