Gamers on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita are having bother accessing their digital purchases after a wierd expiration date immediately appeared on sure video games, as first reported by Kotaku. The issue appears to principally have an effect on traditional titles, stopping customers from enjoying Chrono Cross, Chrono Set off, and Closing Fantasy VI, because the video games are actually “expired.”
However right here’s the odd half: the expiration dates are dated half a century up to now. Twitter consumer Christopher Foose shared an image of his Chrono Cross obtain, which reveals that the sport expired on December thirty first, 1969 at 7:20 PM. He says the problem solely occurred after redownloading the sport, and that he’s now unable to play it on PS3 and PS Vita.
GamesHub editor Edmond Tran similarly found he was unable to play Chrono Cross on the PS3 because of a 52-year-old expiration date. And whereas Tran says he might nonetheless play the traditional title on his PS Vita, he wasn’t capable of finding the itemizing on the PS Vita retailer, an indication that Sony might have taken it down. Different customers on Reddit and Twitter additionally reported the problem with Rune Manufacturing unit Oceans, Tremendous Avenue Fighter IV: Arcade Version, Gex: Enter the Gecko, and for some, their whole digital library.
As outlined within the varied threads and posts about the issue, some gamers say they’ve tried manufacturing facility resetting their consoles, subscribing and unsubscribing to PlayStation Plus, and restoring their sport licenses, all to no avail. PlayStation has but to acknowledge the state of affairs, and the sport firm didn’t instantly reply to The Verge’s request for remark.
There may be one potential motive why this can be occurring, although. Kotaku notes that the problem might stem from a glitch inflicting the PS Vita and PS3 to revert the sport licenses’ expiration dates to the Unix epoch, or the arbitrary time and date set by builders to designate the start of a console’s life.
Even when that is only a glitch, it’s stoking issues that Sony is dealing yet one more blow to the PS3 and PS Vita shops. After the sport firm practically closed down each shops final 12 months, it made them more durable to buy at by taking away the power to make use of bank cards or PayPal to make purchases.