Unplayable PS classic games from the original PlayStation have emerged in recent days, according to several users who tried them on the PS3 and PS Vita. When gamers sought to start Chrono Cross to commemorate new remastering, for example, a message indicating the expiry date (December 31, 1969) prevented them from doing so, and the story began to spread. Rather than affecting only one game, the issue affects a number of PS classic games.
Kotaku suggests that this could be tied to the Unix epoch or Unix Time, an artificial date chosen as the time of the creation of the OS. Many other systems, such as Android, make use of it as well. However, some defects would cause the license to expire beyond January 1, 1970; the date picked by the initial Unix engineers.
@AskPlayStation what happened here? A game I bought years ago is expired 1969 really? How can I fix this. Should I re download and install again it is under Purchased downloads pic.twitter.com/kIDRDXl5Sf
— Steve J (@Crono96) April 5, 2022
Edmond Tran, a GamesHub writer, had the same problem with Chrono Cross on the PS3. Fortunately for him though, he was able to run it on the PS Vita without any problems. In online communities, we see the same issue with Final Fantasy VI; even Rune Factory: Oceans (PS3 game) or Unit 13 (PS Vita).
So did @PlayStation expire the PSOne Classics versions of #ChronoCross and #ChronoTrigger by setting the date on new downloads to 12/31/1969? This is preventing me from playing my purchased copies on Vita and PS3. @ModernVintageG @dark1x pic.twitter.com/wxRebNIZWh
— Christopher Foose (@FooseTV) April 8, 2022
No Response from Sony Yet
- Inquiries to Sony have been ignored so far, and as of this writing, no word has come from the company, as per Kotaku’s report.
- In the past, the business has pledged to tackle bugs such as the well-known CBOMB that occurred on its consoles when the CMOS battery ran out; it was rectified on PS4 and PS5 in late 2021.
Problem opening downloaded game due to expiration (not PS+ or CMOS related) from PS3
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