Unless one thing adjustments, a problem lurking in older PlayStations’ inner timing techniques threatens to ultimately make each PS4 recreation and all downloaded PS3 video games unplayable on present hardware. Right now, it is not a matter of if however when this downside will happen.
This ticking firmware time bomb has been identified in sure PlayStation preservation and hacking circles for some time. But it is gaining new attention amid Sony’s lately introduced choice to shut down the online stores for PS3, PSP, and Vita software. While that impending retailer shutdown will not influence gamers’ talents to play and re-download beforehand bought software for now, the eventual wider shutdown of PSN servers for these aging consoles may have a way more drastic impact on the playability of a large swath of video games.
What’s the issue?
The root of the approaching situation has to do with the CMOS battery inside each PS3 and PS4, which the techniques use to maintain observe of the present time (even once they’re unplugged). If that battery dies or is eliminated for any cause, it raises an inner flag in the system’s firmware indicating the clock could also be out of sync with actuality.
After that flag is raised, the system in query has to verify in with PSN the subsequent time it wants to substantiate the proper time. On the PS3, this on-line verify occurs if you play a recreation downloaded from the PlayStation Store. On the PS4, this additionally occurs if you attempt to play retail video games put in from a disc. This verify needs to be carried out a minimum of as soon as even when the CMOS battery is changed with a contemporary one, so the system can reconfirm clock consistency.
Why does the PlayStation firmware care a lot about having the proper time? On the PS3, the timer verify is used to enforce any “time limits” that may have been positioned in your digital buy (as confirmed by the error message: “This content material has a time restrict. To carry out this operation go to settings date and time settings set through web”). That verify appears to be required even for downloads that do not have any precise set expiration date, including a de facto one-time on-line check-in requirement for techniques after their inner batteries fail.
On the PS4, although, the timing verify is apparently supposed to ensure PSN trophy information is registered precisely, and to stop gamers from pretending to get trophies sooner than they really had. You’d assume this verify could possibly be segregated from the flexibility to load the non-trophy parts of the sport, however player testing has proven that this appears to be a requirement to get PS4 video games to load in any respect.
An eventual situation
None of it is a large downside for many PlayStation homeowners proper now. Yes, the 10- to 20-year lifespan in your common CMOS battery is slowly operating out, particularly for the earliest PS3 hardware. But changing the battery and resyncing the interior timer with PSN is a comparatively minor annoyance in the intervening time (assuming you’ll find a Wi-Fi hotspot and PSN is not suffering one of its rare outages).
But nothing lasts without end, as Sony’s latest selections relating to older PlayStation on-line shops reveals. At some level in the long run, whether or not it is in one yr or 100 years, Sony will shut off the PSN servers that energy the timing verify for hardware it not considers vital. After that, it is solely a matter of time earlier than failing CMOS batteries slowly cut back all PS3 and PS4 hardware to semi-functional curios.
Sony may render the issue moot comparatively simply with a firmware replace that limits the system capabilities tied to this timing verify. Thus far, although, Sony hasn’t publicly indicated it has any such plans, and hasn’t responded to a number of requests for remark from Ars Technica. Until it does, difficult workarounds that make use of jailbroken firmware are the one possibility for guaranteeing that aging PlayStation hardware will stay absolutely usable nicely into the long run.
