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Calendar Bug Disables Older PlayStation 3 Models

Posted by Soulskill on from the probably-just-ubisoft-drm-kicking-in dept.

JohnWilliams writes "The Sony PlayStation Network appears to be inaccessible to older ('phat') PS3 units. Players cannot play games that require a connection, even in single-player, offline mode, e.g. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Also, the system date resets to January 1, 2000. Sony is 'looking into it.' Speculation abounds that it is a bug related to 2010 being incorrectly flagged as a leap year. The newer PS3 Slim models seem to be working properly."

5 of 342 comments (clear)

  1. Complete and utter Sony DRM failure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    On my UK PS3, the date was reset to 31/12/1999 (a value you cannot input yourself manually) and then rolled over into 2000 some hours (5?) later.
    None of my downloaded PS1 games will start - just gives an "invalid copyright protection" error message.
    With the exception of Wipeout HD, none of my downloaded PS3 games will start.
    None of my Blu-ray game disks will start.
    My PlayTV device is not performing scheduled recordings
    VidZone cannot be used, since it requires signing into PSN network to determine what region you're from

  2. I Told You All! by sysusr · · Score: 5, Funny

    When I said the Millennium Bug would strike again, you all thought I was crazy! Who's laughing now?

    --
    \x72\x6D\x20\x2D\x72\x66
  3. Re:HA! by ZDRuX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I understand your explanation of the bug, I'm just arguing that a game shouldn't be crippled by a simple bug that should be trivial to game avaialability offline. I'm just saying a game shouldn't be crippled by the system date. And the only reason I can think of why someone would want the date sync'd or the game made non-working due to changed system date was because of some form of DRM.

    Maybe I'm wrong but this is the only reason I can think of. I just can't find it easy to accept their explanation for this, that's all.

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    The magical number is: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
  4. Sony timer by reybrujo · · Score: 5, Funny

    It is not a bug, it is the Sony timer.

  5. Re:HA! by Jedi+Alec · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We talk to each other. We try to come to an agreement. If that fails a third party might get involved, especially if it's a disagreement between a company and an individual customer.

    And once all those options have been exhausted...then we might bring in an actual lawyer.

    --

    People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.