Worldwide PSN Error Stops On & Offline Playing of Games for PS3 (PSN goes nuclear)

[SonsOfLiberty]

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/8448/10012307500116038550253.jpgWorldwide PSN Error Stops On & Offline Playing of Games for PS3 (PSN goes nuclear)

Sony’s Playstation Network (PSN) went into meltdown this weekend, logging users out of the service and preventing them from playing online games. That alone would be inconvenient, but users, including our own Brian X Chen, are reporting that previously downloaded games - including Heavy Rain - cannot be played offline, that trophies won in games have disappeared from the console.

Sony is aware of the problem, posting updates on both its PS3 blog and Twitter stream. Oddly, the issue is confined to the original big PS3s: The PS3 Slim remains unaffected by the problem.

Although Sony says it will have a fix by this morning, it has not yet said what went wrong. Anecdotal evidence points to a combination of DRM and firmware issues rather than a network outage. Affected units have their system date set to Dec 31, 1999 (something impossible to do manually, according to PS3 News) or January 1st 2000 and the consoles are only able to play non-protected games.

This, combined with errors like the following:

8001050F - Hardware failure. Cannot update Firmware or connect to Internet

make us think that a firmware bug screwed up the date and/or connectivity, and the games’ DRM is thrown into a panic as a result. If this is true, it’s embarrassing for Sony. The other possibility is that the trophy syncing itself is breaking the games: games try to sync trophy info and refuse to work when they can’t. Non trophy-based titles like Metal Gear Solid 4 are unaffected.

We’ll keep an eye on this, and we’re sure that Sony’s PSN engineers aren’t getting much sleep tonight. If any readers are experiencing the same issues, let us know in the comments.

:source: Source: Wired PS3 Meltdown (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/playstation-network-problems-cause-ps3-meltdown/) | PS3 iGN (http://ps3.ign.com/articles/107/1072875p1.html)

[Rart]

And I thought the RRoD was bad.

This is exactly why, at the very least, you need a method of playing single player games without the internet. It's simply unacceptable to assume that every gamer will have access to the internet whenever they wish to play a game, and is exactly why digital distribution platforms can be so annoying.

Although I have to give credit to Steam as it does have an option for playing offline, but it can be an annoying pain to set up if you hadn't been aware of it before and are trying to set it up while offline.

[SonsOfLiberty]

This does not effect Slim's the reason I didn't notice it till today on the News Wire, because I was playing Heavy Rain (was making the chick shower :)).....but the point of it is, Microsoft ust can't "shut down" offlineplay, they can ban you from online gameplay but not shut down your console and can still play offline....but Sony with the flick of a switch can shut down your PS3 off line or on line :lol: That's BAD....so think if you end of hacking your PS3 and are stupid enough to go online and Sony spots it, they could use this exploit and kill your PS3....conspiracy alert, maybe Sony was testing something here to see if they could brick your PS3?

[sigmainfotech]

so about the other play station. what is the different between ps 3 and ps 4

[SonsOfLiberty]

This is no PS4, there is only different models, the phat boy and the slim.