[ad_1]
An nameless reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Until one thing adjustments, a problem lurking in older PlayStations’ inner timing methods threatens to finally make each PS4 sport and all downloaded PS3 video games unplayable on present {hardware}. Proper now, it is not a matter of if however when this downside will happen. […] The basis of the approaching subject has to do with the CMOS battery inside each PS3 and PS4, which the methods use to maintain monitor of the present time (even after they’re unplugged). If that battery dies or is eliminated for any motive, it raises an inner flag within 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 test in with PSN the following time it wants to substantiate the right time. On the PS3, this on-line test occurs whenever you play a sport downloaded from the PlayStation Retailer. On the PS4, this additionally occurs whenever you attempt to play retail video games put in from a disc. This test must be carried out no less than as soon as even when the CMOS battery is changed with a recent one so the system can reconfirm clock consistency.
Why does the PlayStation firmware care a lot about having the right time? On the PS3, the timer test is used to implement any “cut-off dates” which 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 by way of web”). That test 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 methods after their inner batteries fail. On the PS4, although, the timing test is apparently meant to verify PSN trophy knowledge is registered precisely and to stop gamers from pretending to get trophies sooner than they really had. You’d assume this test might be segregated from the flexibility to load the non-trophy parts of the sport, however participant testing has proven that this appears to be a requirement to get PS4 video games to load in any respect. Final month, Sony shut down PlayStation Retailer entry for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and PlayStation Moveable. Sony will finally shut off the PSN servers that energy the timing test for {hardware} it now 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,” provides Ars.
Sony may launch a firmware replace that limits the system features tied to this timing test, however Sony hasn’t publicly indicated it has any such plans.
[ad_2]
Source link
