As with all new technology, there is going to be problems. I've successfully purchased launch-day editions of PS2, PS3, PS4 and now PS5, and have never had any problems with a launch-day console.
But alas, it's already happened once on the new PlayStation 5, I have personally seen the dreaded "re-building database" screen.
I started hearing whispers of the problem, and since SONY hasn't officially acknowledged the problem, I tried to keep my station fairly original. I did NOT transfer anything from my PS4 during setup. I have installed Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. I have redeemed the Marvel's Spider-Man Remaster (not downloaded/played yet), and I've installed The Last of Us 2 and played about 15 minutes.
On Saturday morning, I went to boot up from a "rest mode" state, and got the familiar beep, but nothing on my display. Checking all other options, ensuring the console was plugged in, etc - I pressed the power button on the console it self, heard a beep, but didn't power up (no lights to indicate power). Franctic, I kept pressing the power button, and upon the 3rd or 4th press, it finally booted up, and gave me a grey screen, that said re-building the database.
This error seems to be growing in experience, and we're hoping Sony puts out a patch for it soon. Since then, luckily, we've not seen the issue again, and out of an abundance of caution, have been avoiding Rest Mode, and closing the software before powering off the console. These steps shouldn't be necessary, (and they may not even be helpful) but it's the best we have for the time being.
Some have tied this to the Spider-Man: Remaster game, but we've not ran that yet. Some are saying the hard drives are are simply getting corrupted and failing. We don't know yet, but do have faith that SONY will address soon.
We will update this article as soon as we learn more.