The empire crumbles: PS3s succumb to Y2K10, PSN inaccessible due to “APOCALYPS3″

Update: Sony has confirmed that service has been restored, and the company will sadly not be going out of business. The morons of the world still have a functioning piece of pathetic black plastic to play with. [source]

Original post:

As Shufflingdead was ecstatic to report last night, Sony’s PlayStation network is inaccessible to millions. Most older-model (non-Slim) PS3s appear to be affected by a bug in the internal clock of the system. Those encountering the issue find that their PS3s have been transported back to the dawn of the Willenium, with the confused internal clock resetting the OS’s clock to January 1, 2000. Broken systems are unable to access the PlayStation Network (PSN), play PSN games, or use DLC. Any content which requires use of the internal clock doesn’t appear to work either.

It is currently thought that PS3s the world over will begin working again come midnight GMT, that’s when their internal clocks should skip ahead to a logical date. From what I understand, the problem stems from the PS3′s internal clock thinking the date is 2/29/2010, which the OS clock refuses to believe.

Word from the official PlayStation Blog is that the company hopes to resolve the issue within the next 24 hours. Convenient. In other words, Sony’s hoping the system’s clocks will fix themselves when the OS and internal clock can agree on a date which actually exists. Right now, some users are risking their PS3s by taking them apart, removing the clock battery for several minutes, and then returning it. That particular fix is risky, but it actually works, according to many online who have tried it.

Stay tuned to find out if this thing fixes itself. If it doesn’t, a mass-recall may be necessary. If that’s the case, the PlayStation brand would surely be irreparably damaged, and Sony’s entire business may even be put at risk.

The full update on the situation from Sony after the jump.

As you may be aware, some customers have been unable to connect to the PlayStation Network today. This problem affects the models other than the new slim PS3.

We believe we have identified that this problem is being caused by a bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system.

Errors include:

* The date of the PS3 system may be re-set to Jan 1, 2000.
* When the user tries to sign in to the PlayStation Network, the following message appears on the screen; “An error has occurred. You have been signed out of PlayStation Network (8001050F)”.
* When the user tries to launch a game, the following error message appears on the screen and the trophy data may disappear; “Failed to install trophies. Please exit your game.”
* When the user tries to set the time and date of the system via the Internet, the following message appears on the screen; “The current date and time could not be obtained. (8001050F)”
* Users are not able to play back certain rental video downloaded from the PlayStation Store before the expiration date.

We hope to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours. In the meantime, 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.

As mentioned above, please be advised that the new slim PS3 is not affected with this error. We are doing our best to resolve the issue and do apologize for any inconvenience caused.

For the latest status on this situation please continue to check either the PlayStation.Blog or PlayStation.com.

Sources: PlayStation Blog, NeoGAF

[image source]