
It looks like Sony has yet another bug to plug. Fans returning to the PS1 Classic re-release of Chrono Cross on PS3 and PS Vita this week – presumably propelled by the recent PS4 re-release – have discovered that a PlayStation Network bug is rendering the legendary RPG unplayable. And it’s not an isolated incident: while we’ve tried to replicate the issue on our own consoles without success, there are reports on forums and social media that others are affected.
Our first suspicion was that Square Enix may have yanked the title in favour of its new Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, similar to what Rockstar did with the old version of Grand Theft Auto prior to the GTA Trilogy’s launch. But it turns out this is much more likely an issue with Sony’s database: the consistent theme across all unplayable games is that their expiry dates have been reset to 31st January, 1969.
Kotaku found evidence of dozens of fans sharing the same issue, which all seems to relate to a complicated programming function called the Unix epoch. In as simple terms as possible, this is a tool that programmers use to parse the number of seconds from the date 1st January, 1970. Somehow, it seems, there’s a glitch in which content expiry dates are defaulting to the aforementioned Unix epoch, effectively rendering them unplayable.
But why do the games have expiry dates at all? Well, this was something that Sony integrated in order to help determine whether PS Plus games could be played. In essence, the way it’s supposed to work is that the expiry date is meant to align with your subscription ending, but clearly something has gone wrong here. It’ll be interesting to see whether the platform holder actually fixes this – especially considering it tried to unceremoniously shutter the PS3 and PS Vita storefronts last year.
[source kotaku.com]
Comments (72)
And this is exactly why I’m very worried about an all digital gaming future…
Don't worry, just pay sony your subscription every year forever then you can play classics!
I have heard that it's to do with Sony migrating the PS3 and Vita server to the PS4 and PS5 server, and closing the ancient architecture of the older server, and it's a timing bug that has happened as a result. That's just conjecture though, so I can't prove it either way.
Yeah...curious...along with Jim Ryan's comments from years ago saying in an interview unashamedly that his job was to make you buy the same game multiple times to give him revenue.
Best Sony controller ever made for me. Just seeing the pic brought back memories.
it's a conspiracy...
@mrtennis1990 I’ve been Digital only since middle of the 360 and Microsoft kept all my cloud saves and i could Re download the games on Series X, so I don’t look much into digital vs discs as much as i look into a company’s plan to make both work going forward. Disc’s won’t help with GT7 since it’s a online only game or sadly Diablo 2 remake. Theres a lot of work to be done on all sides but Nintendo and Sony could surely clean up there BC approaches. But all Digital vs Physical hasn’t meant a single difference for me on Xbox. Outside of Digital being more convenient and more environmentally friendly.
@mrtennis1990 not like your physical carts/discs are gonna last forever either. Everything has a shelf life...
@mrtennis1990 you should be worried about an all DRM future. Not too long ago both physical and digital copies of GT7 were unplayable because of its reliance on online servers. That's not a physical vs digital problem.
@Rural-Bandit I also went all digital around the same time. I haven't regretted it once. Only recently I started picking up a few Switch Carts just for space saving.
I recall this happened to a regular Vita game for me a few weeks back, restarting the Vita allowed it to sync again with Sony's servers and I was able to play the game.
"but clearly something has gone wrong here"
Yeah, Sony.
Remember, this the company that is currently screwing up next gen upgrades. They clearly don't think that far ahead.
My retro games are all OK for now. Hopefully stays that way.
Beware of digital games.
@Krysus i like to tell others i never heard of a lost or scratched digital copy. It’s the convenience piece for me mainly. My game room isn’t all that big, some might think it’s big if they live in a big city, but to me it’s still pretty small if that make sense. I mean i have a 65 inch oled and full Sonos surround sound a Switch oled, PS5 & Series X with my headsets for PS5 & Xbox our course all the extra controllers and thats about all i have space for on that entertainment stand. I have zero desire to build or buy a storage unit and find the space for it to put a piece of plastic that hopes data and not even all the data, such as patches, DLC etc etc. i’m the same with music and movies also, Digitally all the way. I am happy physical still remains for those that enjoy it and need to have it in their hands to feel like they own something. But so many come off as its the superior way to buy and collect. Here comes the tangent part you can stop reading or tell me to shut up haha
But i hear well with physical i can buy used and trade my games with a friend, but yet Gamepass don’t make money for devs. Well how does buying used or trading games give a cent to devs? Hell waiting for the game to go from $60 to $20 barely gives the devs any coin. Long story short i want gamers to have options, digital, physical and services. All have pro’s and con’s, but this narrative that Digital is bad or does less to preserve games really needs to take a look at what Microsoft has done and double down on Sony and Nintendo for making their back library’s go away or hide behind a paywall. It can be done and they are choosing not to.
@Krysus God forbid anyones house catches fire but you would lose your whole physical collection, i would lose my console and Re download my whole collection. I hate to make this point, cause i really hope that never happens to anyone. But it is a thing and something i have thought about. I live in Texas, tornados are a real thing, my house could get taken out. Also for my switch i have never bought a physical cart, as they load slower than Digital and i like my handheld devices to have my whole library in them when i take them. Never know what i might want to play on the plane and not have with me. Plus you get around 3 dollar back on your digital switch purchases so after a few games i get a whole $9 dollars off my 4th game hahaha
@Rural-Bandit "....i’m the same with music and movies also, Digitally all the way. I am happy physical still remains for those that enjoy it and need to have it in their hands to feel like they own something. But so many come off as its the superior way to buy and collect...."
Hear, hear.
@Scob RIGHT! Like there’s no right or wrong way to buy and enjoy a game. Whatever works best for ya i say go for it. But not everything is a competition and has a losing effort. Console wars are one thing and pretty stupid but the Digital vs Physical media purchase wars is a whole other level of not needed.
I had something like this happen with GTA Chinatown wars. I got it to work a again by downloading a game that hadn’t reached its expiry date then re-download GTA CW after that it worked again. added bonus of the expiry date was now set to the year 24856
I’ve had a problem I can’t fix on my vita. When ever I try to play Rayman for PS1 on my vita, I get this error "Cannot access memory card"? But for all other games this isn’t a problem (even other ps1 classics I can play, it’s just rayman) does anyone please have any ideas how to solve it been trying for well over a year.
i heard this news yesterdy and immediately took out my vita. i was able to download all my ps1 classics without a hitch so not sure why this is impacting certain people and not others.
@Rural-Bandit I used to own an N64 and an SNES but after I moved they were mysteriously "lost" wether they truly got misplaced somewhere or someone stole them at some point during the move I'll never know...but I do know that I lost the two consoles, all my super Nintendo games and about half my N64 games. Needless to say, if I had them digital I would have only lost the consoles...
@ATaco Sorry to hear that. That stinks, i loved my SNES collection, didnt have a lot for N64 but the handful i had i really loved playing. I wish nintendo let us buy individual retro titles. The paywall thing kinda stinks, me my wife and kid have the family plan expansion so that works, but i only play a handful. I play Super Punch out almost weekly still for SNES. But that really sucks, sorry to hear it but going forward maybe Digital would be best for you, if not or for certain titles you can always buy the disc.
I can't also play hotline miami 2 (that I bought) on vita yesterday, I can play the first game though.
@Rural-Bandit i personally prefer physical over digital and not because i disagree with digital i just like my boxes..if a game needs a constant tinternet connection like diablo 2 then i'm more inclined to purchase the digital version as a physical online only release is useless once the servers go kaput..i'm not 100% sold on digital being much better for the enviroment because everytime i decide to play digital i'm firing up those servers to get my game running..single player offline games dont require the server to run if the tinternet is down..pros and cons for everything in the end no matter how we slice the cake,and praise the sun for options...while we still have them..
Yet more reasons for me to never trust Sony with digital purchases. Why on earth would they implement such an expiration date license system?????
Suikoden and Driver are the only PS1 titles I have currently installed, nothing suspicious about them so far.
Were any of the affected titles ever on PS+? Because it's much weirder that an expiry date would even show up on anything beyond that.🤔
@Richnj They're screwing up ps6 upgrades?
Difficult to believe that the physical vs. digital argument is still an ongoing thing. Buy what's best for you and don't take potshots at people who have different priorities. Simples.
@mrtennis1990
Well, physical discs won’t last forever anyway. Many of my PS1/2 discs don’t work. To go back further, many of my NES carts only work intermittently, and carts were even less prone to damage.
No, I’d go all digital tomorrow if getting a digital “license”, that you cannot trade or resell, wasn’t such a colossal rip-off compared to physical ownership.
@thefourfoldroot That's interesting. I've spent the last year or so revisiting a lot of games from my physical collection that goes back as far as the SNES/Megadrive era. I didn't find a single game that didn't still work perfectly. Not one.
People saying physical won't last forever, well maybe. But I guess I'm lucky that I have a big physical collection with a lot of game discs even going back nearly 30 years which still look like the day I got them.
No scratches or the fabled 'disc rot' that I've never ever seen, and they all work.
I was playing my physical copy of Dino Crisis 2 on my still working perfectly PS2 just recently.
I'm not knocking digital because I see the convenience factor and the space saving but as long as the option exists I can't bring myself to put the fate of my games in the hands of the platform holder.
And this scenario, while a possible bug, is the reason why.
Was having big problems with the online on my Vita earlier in the year, sorted it out butI am dreading taking my Vita out to check this! ='o
@LN78
Yes, well, 3 younger siblings and cds that can get scratched are not a great combination. As for carts, they do wear, But admittedly it could be my actual NES on the way out. I don’t have another to try the carts in. Either way though, the idea that physical media last forever is clearly not going to be true. Decentralised digital preservation with hard backup is the best way to go.
@thefourfoldroot Nothing lasts forever.
@LN78
Lol, true, but that doesn’t mean I’m about to go kill myself. Nor does it mean people / companies shouldn’t think about the best way to preserve gaming history for future generations.
CEX, those cheeky high street scalpers, are robbing people of £360 for the PS5 DOE edition, whereas the PS5 disc edition they're trying to rob people of £675.
People still want physical media, it seems!
@thefourfoldroot I wasn't talking in a "universal entropy" kind of a way! My point was that I think the argument that physical media is fragile and on its way to inevitable failure is slightly overstated based on my own first hand evidence. Of course it will stop working eventually. Everything does.
@Rural-Bandit I've had phases of serious physical collecting, but I've settled on digital only across my PC, Switch, Series S and PS5 as I cannot stand the clutter anymore. I'm 34 and have no reservations that I won't be able to play any of the games I currently own somehow, in some form, at any future point.
There is definitely a snobbery towards digital from some of those who have a considerable sunk cost in the hobby. I personally do not understand physically collecting most disc based media beyond the PS3/360 era. All you own are digital keys which will in twenty years point you to the same discontinued servers as those of us with a digital purchase.
On a separate point, these days most game packaging is barebones and the recycled plastics are super cheap and bendy and often warp the artwork. "Limited Editions" aside, you're not exactly collecting premium quality these days.
@jrt87 Yeah - collecting (as opposed to buying for the purposes of lending/trading in later) physical media beyond Gen 7 is (for the most part) pointless - the obvious exception being the Switch and even then downloads are frequently required if you want access to the complete product that you paid for.
@Medic_Alert NSO vouchers stopped in August 2019 for the US.
@LN78
True, but when talking about game preservation as I was (rather than for personal lifetime use), “eventually” is kind of the point…
@thefourfoldroot Apologies. I got the impression you were talking about our personal collections - "many of my NES carts only work intermittently" etc. I doubt anybody thinks it's a good idea to attempt to permanently preserve game code on perishable media, irrespective of how resilient it is. Monday morning crossed wires!
@LN78
No problem. I can see that justifying my thoughts based on my own personal experience could easily lead to tangled wires.
@thefourfoldroot So you were talking about your own collection and not game preservation in the broader sense? I'm deeply confused. Whatever.
@LN78
No. It’s ok. My posts are there to read again if you care about not being confused, but it’s not important everyone gets it.
@thefourfoldroot Well I've read them again and I can't tell which you're talking about - you switch from one (#31 and #35) to the other (#37 and #46). Like I said, whatever. It was my mistake. Enjoy your day.
@Rural-Bandit I don't mind digital at all I have my disc ps5 but issue I have is that may only be small right now but the likes of them closing down the store for older consoles which they decided not to in the end but look at it this way what stops them doing this in the future as they already removed Driveclub from the store so that makes this obsolete to people who bought the digital PS5 who cannot now purchase that while this is an example they seem to leave behind digital players to a certain extent.
I prefer having both options for a few reasons and I do like the digital sales they have done which are sometimes better than a shop as well as if you can get vouchers cheaper that also saves money too.
I hope both long exist for a very long time or they make sure if they go digital they do not remove anything and invest more so they don't have to.
@Krysus are you not afraid they could pull more games like they did with Driveclub from the store by being only digital?
@jrt87 excellent point i forgot to make, thanks for reminding me of it, i agree, when i go into a gamestop and look at the cases and artwork it is very cheap and no cool instruction manual like the old days. The boxes seem like they would crack easily, but maybe not and yes i am 38 and hate the clutter or having to get up and switch a game, no I’m not lazy, but it just seems like im not using technology at it’s fullest that way. I bought the Digital PS5 so I don’t even have a choice there. I still think Xbox should have made a cheaper Digital X and not the S, but thats another topic completely separate. But great point on the cheapness out sound collectors editions. However Horizon west on PS5 had a digital code in its CE.
@Medic_Alert wow thanks for telling me that buddy, i did not know about that. I need to look into that. Not sure if that works here in the states or not. I just get 300 coins on a $60 dollar game which is $3.00 US dollars. Great info, thanks for sharing.
@hoffa007 i agree 100 % that closing down stores and access to peoples games is super anti consumer. Still not sure why Sony would do it when Microsoft is doing the opposite and making original xbox -360 games all BC and work with Disc’s or Digital copies. Not trying to make this a Sony vs Microsoft conversation. But it is a point i think that shows it is possible to do and fan’s do play and repurchase them. Sure some PS fans made fun of Xbox for having old games be a early highlight to the new Series Consoles. But i would think they should have cheered that more and asked Sony and others to follow. PC is really good about this also. But i agree thats a bad look to gamers and one that makes them fear the long term investment in their games. Let’s hope going forward sony finds a way to make this better.
Just a bug??? AWW, start looking for another negative story gaming media (mainly some YouTube channels just loved this story) Sorry guys you were wrong AGAIN
@ATaco atleast the expected life expectancy of blu ray discs are 100 years. And cartridges that don’t have an internal battery even longer.
Digital is as long as the servers are up and I doubt servers will stay up for 100+ years. 20+ years is even a maybe when it comes to sony and nintendo.
The 60's were the best PlayStation decade. After 1970 it all went downhill. I blame Game Boy.
Sony really doing their best to look bad. Not sure if all their PR team have been on a long holiday/sacked or a just suddenly rubbish but they certainly seem to be burning all their good will with the wider gaming audience and media.
Hopefully they’ll fix it
I would expect Sony to delist all retro/classics line very soon.
Then you can only get them by subscribing, like Nintendo Online offerings.
Virtual Console and Classics line are basically done. Soon only MS will sell old games.
this is why i prefer my discs.
ive games library from the PlayStation 1 , original Xbox to todays games,
recently cleaned my Nintendo 64 and games
zelda majora's mask il find that fairy this time lol
Nothing curious about why it is happening.
I’m all digital on Switch and 50/50 on PS5. I purchase single player games on disc whenever possible but all multiplayer games are digital.
@Rural-Bandit Chances are if the Cell Processor on the PS3 was a success and not so complicated to develop for we prob would've still had an easy access today of PS1-3 titles on PS5. Essentially they started over from scratch for PS4 and now it's like "okay, we gotta go back for them" now that Jim Ryan is finally on board with backwards compatibility. Double-edge sword here, if Xbox One wasn't a bust, would they have focused on the backwards compatibility since that was their caviet to fill in the lack of single player games? Who knows. I'm just glad the voices that screamed for compatibility on PS4 are being heard again.
@WadeIsInsane the program for BC on Xbox has been a long time small project that Phil wanted more deeply funded and supported. Xbox and PC are brother and sister now and PC is king of BC. So sales aren’t always why teams start or stop projects. Nintendo’s handhelds are king in sales and they simply careless about giving players access to their old games. I was happy when Sony came around to conventional PC parts and not proprietary chips that slowed down devs and made for weaker ports. Xbox has more single player games now in development which was a clearly hole and now Sony has more online games in development to fill in a hole in their library, so I’m really happy where both sit right now. As for BC for Sony I don’t love the paywall, but I’ll try a year of it and play some classics.
@darkswabber i was told on here that no one buys a new console to play old games so i would think 10 years of service should be enough, also as a all digital media collector, only my music would upset me if for some reason they took it offline, but seeing as Apple is worth 3 trillion dollars I don’t see that happening and Microsoft’s worth is 2.7 Trillion so I don’t see them taking down servers but Nintendo and Sony scare me as they don’t have the data centers and money to keep lots of storefront’s running.
Easy solution = get the games and the machines in actual version. No PS+ subscription needed. Just play with your Retro games and machines.
Besides having original PS1 discs - I have this Chrono Cross and a bunch of other games loaded onto a USB stick with Autobleem on a PS1 classic. Doubling the Classic's resolution in Autobleem to 640x480 makes the games look better too.
If Sony takes your stuff away.. there's always the internet to get it back from.
Sony is so behind when it comes to everything online and digital.
@Rural-Bandit
You make all the points behind my originally going all Digital. I only in the last 2 years started a very small Physical collection for two reasons, my kids both have switch-lites and I'll be damned if I'm gonna buy 3 copies of Mario Odyssey or Smash Bros and secondly, my collection is stupidly large on Switch and out of caution for space I wanted some games on Cart. I keep all those carts either in my small case which is always in my backpack or my kids have them. But all your points are perfectly valid. I take my bug out bag with me to work every day and never worry about my games getting thieves or melted.
Sidenote: You make a great point about the undervalued Nintendo Store points system.
@hoffa007 I dunno, Driveclub still works. You just can't buy it or play it online. I'm more concerned with the vagarious nature of digital license 'ownership'. I recently had to 'renew' all my movie and tv licenses thru XBL for my baby Surface (total pita). That's just weird. There is no standard or regulation controlling digital licensing. It seems the entire digital world is evolving into an always online license check. So we end up going backwards. There is something to be said for the semi-permanent nature of physical ownership. Although it means far less now with the necessity of day 1 patches. My favorites are the (very rare) physical cartridges that still run entirely on the 1.0 version or cart only version. I think I have like 4 total lol.
@Krysus that’s understandable with the family, my wife plays Mario Kart and so does her daughter, and me so we have 3 Digital copies of that game, you’re welcome Nintendo. It get’s worse for me cause we did the same with animal crossing. So i understand your point point completely with that. My switch case i think holds 5 or 7 carts, but again I don’t have any, i did upgrade to the 400GB micro SD and i still have like 190 open GB’s.
@Krysus i agree that the license behind digital needs to get better and of course I don’t want to lose my digital games nor do i want anyone else to lose their. Y’all spent your hard earned money on these games as did i and we are entitled to our purchases. I hope it never happens to you buddy. Thanks for sharing. Let’s hope the big 3 work it out. Here in the states Best Buy is getting rid of physical discs in store for movies so it’s slowing making the switch to all digital and service platforms.
I recommend those affected take legal action. It's the only language Sony understands.
It's a problem outlook had too with the overflow of the Unix epoch style dates. We have known this would have happened for years, at the time it simply wasn't a problem to be worried about.
I'd imagine it will get fixed.
It's not an evil plan from Sony to take your games away, just like it wasn't an evil plan from Microsoft to avoid having your searching your inbox...
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