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ApocalyPS3: 8 out of 11 PS3 'fat' SKUs affected, PS3 shared Zune chip
Eurogamer's resident supernerd at Digital Foundry has weighed in on yesterday's global PS3 meltdown, cleverly dubbed ApocalyPS3. While early reports seemed to indicate PlayStation Network was at fault – "playstation network down" was a top Google search term on Sunday and Sony itself continues to pin the blame squarely on PSN – it became increasingly clear that the issue was unrelated to the console's internet connectivity and instead related to the console's internal clock. If this sounds suspiciously similar to the Z2K bug that suddenly bricked thousands (dozens?) of 30GB Zune players in 2008, it's because both the PS3 and Zune share an ARM CPU chip, says DF. This is presumably the same Freescale processor blamed for Z2K, a chip that happens to have a known problem dealing with leap years. According to "unofficial community-compiled lists" cited by Digital Foundry, eight out of the eleven "fat" PS3 SKUs were affected by the faulty chip, easily totaling millions of units. If the problem wasn't resolved quietly (perhaps too quietly, considering the dearth of updates on the company's Twitter feed) and relatively quickly by the inevitable march of time itself, Sony would have been tasked with repairing millions of affected consoles; a burden exacerbated by said console's inability to connect to the PlayStation Network. Lucky for us, and infinitely more so for Sony, at 0000 GMT yesterday, PS3s the world over suddenly figured out what day it was and everything went back to normal. All that's left to do is hope that Sony issues a patch to prevent the next apocalypse. (Isn't that the one in 2012?)
PS3 clock bug squashed; games are playable [update]
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/playstation/PS3_leap_year_bug_is_gone_games_are_playable_now'; We've apparently made it through the worst of the storm, friends. We've received a number of tips informing us that the internal clock bug that was affecting non-Slim PS3s for the past 24 hours has been fixed, rendering all games playable once more. We tempted fate shortly after receiving these reports by testing out a few of our PS3 Phat units and can confirm that they're running games just fine. Additionally, our "lost" Trophies appear to be properly re-synced to our PSN accounts. The extent of the damage incurred during the bug-out is unknown, but will likely surface in the next few hours. No Joystiq staffers lost any of their hard-earned Trophy data, but we're an awfully small sample group for a problem that affected every living being on Earth. Update: PlayStation Blog confirms that PSN service has been restored and all PS3 systems should be operating normally. Click past the jump for additional information.
What could the PS3 bug mean for console MMOs?
If you're a PS3 owner, you probably already know about the difficulties surrounding the PS3 Phat consoles as of late. You're probably also wondering why we are talking about this here at Massively. Well, the problems that began this weekend left many players unable to log into the Playstation Network, rendering certain games unplayable. Games like MAG. We're betting the MAG population is looking a bit sparse right now. Earlier today, Sony warned owners of the affected consoles to shut them down and leave them alone for the next 24 hours, while they work to repair the bug with the internal clock that's causing the problem. While it's great that Sony has isolated the problem and is working to repair it, it leaves us with some food for thought. MMO developers are beginning to turn an eye to the console market, and this incident highlights a potential significant weakness. PCs rely almost entirely on software and individual hardware when it comes to gaming. It's the rare MMO gamer who doesn't know how to open his or her tower and create a custom machine. Consoles don't work like that. If a bad update comes down or there is some sort of internal glitch (with the internal clock, for example), everyone who owns that particular console is going to get it because everyone has the same hardware. That, in turn, will affect everyone trying to play an MMO from their console. While this doesn't mean mass hysteria and the doom of the console MMO market, hopefully it will serve to alert MMO developers to a problem that they can address before it moves from "potential" to "actual". In the meantime, here's a little something to look at while you wait for your PS3 to come back to the land of the living.
Sony: 'Don't use your PS3' until internal clock bug is fixed
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/playstation/Sony_Don_t_use_your_PS3_until_internal_clock_bug_is_fixed'; After a night of radio silence, Sony has finally spoken up about the game-crashing issues currently plaguing non-Slim PS3 models. A post on PlayStation Blog has confirmed that the problems are "being caused by a bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system." The statement puts a loose timeframe on a fix for the issues, saying, "we hope to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours." Additionally, the PlayStation Blog post includes a word of warning to PS3 Phat owners: "if you have a model other than the new slim PS3, we advise that you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained Trophies, and not being able to restore certain data." (Read Sony's full statement after the break.) We know you're curious to see what the console apocalypse looks like, but trust us -- it's just not worth it. We'll let you know when it's safe to turn your system back on. Update: The issue has been resolved.
PSN inaccessible, Trophy-supporting games unplayable on non-Slim PS3s [update 4]
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/playstation/PSN_is_down_some_titles_experiencing_game_crashing_errors'; A wide rash of game-crashing errors is spreading among the PS3-owning community at the moment, most of which can be chalked up to a 8001050F error code. This has led to a variety of unfortunate side-effects for those affected, including corrupted Trophy information and an inability to access the PSN. When combined, those two issues prevent players from launching certain games, such as Heavy Rain, without being kicked back to the XMB. We've contacted Sony to find out what's causing the issue, and when we can expect to get back to chasing down the Origami Killer. He might just be able to make a clean getaway while we suffer through this downtime. Update: Sony has acknowledged the issue, and is "looking into it." We've yet to hear an official word on what the problem is, though it seems to be a bit larger than just the PSN. Owners of PS3 Phats are reporting that the date on their console has reverted to 12/31/1999, which is likely the cause of the data-corrupting errors. Some Phat-owners have reported receiving the errors while their console was offline, which is upsetting, to say the least. We'll let you know when we hear official word from Sony. Update 2: It's been 11 hours since our last update from Sony, and Phat PS3s worldwide are still unable to play Trophy-supported games. The issue is almost certainly non-PSN related, and appears to be a firmware issue caused by the screwy time and date settings. The issue is also affecting debug consoles, which Develop reports is preventing PS3 game developers from working on their projects. We'll keep pushing Sony on this issue. Happy New Year, everyone! Update 3: Sony has responded to the internal clock error, and is advising PS3 Phat owners to leave them turned off until the issue can be fixed -- hopefully within the next 24 hours. Read here for more info. Update 4: The issue has been resolved.
