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A Huge PlayStation Error Is Causing Games To Be Unplayable

PlayStation is experiencing a massive issue with classic games remaining unplayable, as reports are coming in from Twitter from gamers who can't access certain titles.

By James Brizuela | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

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For some odd reason, PlayStation users are finding it impossible to play some of their favorite classic games on their consoles. That is not a dig at the fact that classic games just haven’t been ported yet, but there is an even bigger issue at hand here. It’s already difficult enough to play old-school PlayStation games, but apparently, some error is dating games back to 1969. A Twitter user posted a screenshot of his attempt to play the original Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger. The gamer had already purchased his copies of these games on both PS3 and PS Vita, but this error keeps popping up. You can see the image of the error message below:

There is apparently some issue that stems from the engineering side of things. These arbitrary dates that are popping up could be in reference to something called the “Unix epoch.” This date refers to the time in which the operating system began its lifespan, and not when the specific game was made. However, now it seems as if PlayStation is receiving some sort of error message within the coding of this date that is making it seem as if the player’s game is expired. There has not been a solution to this issue yet, and it seems as if Chrono Cross is not the only game that this error message is popping up for. Another gamer on Twitter reported the same issue with trying to boot up Final Fantasy VI but getting hit with some expiration date in 1970. This seems to be happening with traditional PSOne games being played on PS3 consoles.

While this random error is keeping it even more difficult to play classic PlayStation games, this all could be a result of the new system that is coming into play for PlayStation users. The PlayStation Plus model is changing in June, which will offer games dating back to the PSOne era of the console’s lifespan. Maybe while engineering is moving over the coding that it takes to port certain games, they are messing with everyone’s ability to play said games. This is just speculation, but it could be a factor in this random expiration date popping up for PS3 and Vita players.

PlayStation will need to figure out why players’ games are randomly being expired quickly, otherwise, things could go sour for the company quickly. That, or fans might start to jump ship to the Xbox side of things with their more accessible Xbox Game Pass. The Xbox Game Pass dates back to the original Xbox console, and a good number of games are already backward compatible with current consoles. PlayStation needs to match this high level of accessibility if this new PlayStation Plus model stands a chance against its toughest competitor. Losing out on playing classic games due to some random expiration error is not a step in the right direction.

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