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These consoles could eventually be large paperweights if Sony doesn't fix a problem looming in their firmware.
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Unless something changes, an issue lurking in older PlayStations' internal timing systems threatens to eventually make every PS4 game and all downloaded PS3 games unplayable on current hardware. Right now, it's not a matter of if but
when
this problem will occur.
Further Reading
Sony will shut down online stores for legacy PlayStation games this summer
This ticking firmware time bomb has been known in certain PlayStation preservation and hacking circles for a while. But it's
gaining new attention
amid Sony's recently announced decision to
shut down the online stores for PS3, PSP, and Vita software
. While that impending store shutdown won't impact players' abilities to play and re-download previously purchased software for now, the eventual wider shutdown of PSN servers for these aging consoles could have a much more drastic effect on the playability of a wide swath of games.
What’s the problem?
The root of the coming issue has to do with
the CMOS battery
inside every PS3 and PS4, which the systems use to keep track of the current time (even when they're unplugged). If that battery dies or is removed for any reason, it raises an internal flag in the system's firmware indicating the clock may be out of sync with reality.
After that flag is raised, the system in question has to check in with PSN the next time it needs to confirm the correct time. On the PS3, this online check happens when you play a game downloaded from the PlayStation Store. On the PS4, this also happens when you try to play retail games installed from a disc. This check has to be performed at least once even if the CMOS battery is replaced with a fresh one so the system can reconfirm clock consistency.
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Why does the PlayStation firmware care so much about having the correct time? On the PS3, the timer check
is used
to
enforce
any
"time limits"
that might have been placed on your digital purchase (as confirmed by the error message: "This content has a time limit. To perform this operation go to settings date and time settings set via internet"). That check seems to be required even for downloads that don't have any actual set expiration date, adding a de facto one-time online check-in requirement for systems after their internal batteries fail.
On the PS4, though, the timing check is
apparently
intended to make sure PSN trophy data is registered accurately and to prevent players from pretending to get trophies earlier than they actually had. You'd think this check could be segregated from the ability to load the non-trophy portions of the game, but
player testing
has shown that this seems to be a requirement to get PS4 games to load
at all
.
An eventual issue
Further Reading
The day the
Mario Kart
died: Nintendo’s kill switch and the future of online consoles
None of this is a huge problem for most PlayStation owners
right now
. Yes, the 10- to 20-year lifespan on your average CMOS battery is slowly running out, especially for the earliest PS3 hardware. But replacing the battery and resyncing the internal timer with PSN is a relatively minor annoyance for the time being (assuming you can find a Wi-Fi hotspot and PSN isn't
suffering one of its rare outages
).
But nothing lasts forever, as Sony's recent decisions regarding older PlayStation online stores show. At some point in the future, whether it's in one year or 100 years, Sony
will
shut off the PSN servers that power the timing check for hardware it no longer considers important. After that, it's only a matter of time before failing CMOS batteries slowly reduce all PS3 and PS4 hardware to semi-functional curios.
Sony could render the problem moot relatively easily with a firmware update that limits the system functions tied to this timing check. Thus far, though, Sony hasn't publicly indicated it has any such plans and hasn't responded to multiple requests for comment from Ars Technica. Until it does, complicated workarounds that
make use of jailbroken firmware
are the only option for ensuring that aging PlayStation hardware will remain fully usable well into the future.
Listing image by Kyle Orland
