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PS3 crashes end, PSN service fully restored

[UPDATE 2] Following nearly 24 hours of the "ApocalyPS3," afflicted units of Sony's console begin to come back online, initially with an erroneous date; this evening, Sony sounds official all clear, blames false leap-year reading.

The past day has been a traumatic one for owners of the PlayStation "Fat." Last night in Australia--one of the first territories across the international date line--reports began to surface that non-Slim units of Sony's console were suffering from "Error 8001050F," which force-quit games shortly after they were started. As a result, thousands--perhaps millions--of owners of pre-2009 PS3s were locked out of the PlayStation Network for an indeterminate amount of time.

The error at the heart of the

The error at the heart of the "ApocalyPS3."

With furious console owners decrying the "ApocalyPS3" in myriad forums, this morning Sony announced that a solution to the problem would arrive within 24 hours. By this afternoon, the global crisis appears to have begun abating. Around 3 p.m. PST, all the older-model PS3s in the GameSpot offices began working again. Similar reports began popping up on other game-news outlets and in online forums.

Though Sony had not responded to requests for clarification about the cessation of Error 8001050F, it did say this morning that the problem was likely associated with the internal clock in older PS3s. Indeed, the problem's sudden abatement was accompanied by a resetting of afflicted consoles back to Sunday, February 28. This was true of all the PS3s in GameSpot's US office, including debug units used for testing preview games. The fact that no system updates needed to be downloaded and installed adds weight to Sony's theory.

Unfortunately, the erroneous date raises the issue that many believe was at the center of the problem--that the clock error was causing problems with the PS3's trophy system. Sony warned specifically that playing afflicted PS3s could result in loss of trophies. Several GameSpot editors who resumed playing games on older units were earning trophies, but with the wrong February 28 date affixed. Inquiries sent to Sony Computer Entertainment America about the status of the trophy system were not answered as of press time. However, gamers worried about losing trophy data may want to hold off until the official announcement before resuming playing.

[UPDATE] As of 5 p.m. PST, afflicted PS3 "Fats" were awarding trophies with the correct date and time.

[UPDATE 2] Around 6 p.m. Sony declared the PlayStation Network was fully operational and gamers could resume playing as normal. A spokesperson also revealed the exact problem which led to the nearly day-long outage.

"We are aware that the internal clock functionality in the PS3 units other than the slim model, recognized the year 2010 as a leap year," said Patrick Seybold, SCEA's director of corporate communications and social media, on the official US PlayStation Blog. "Having the internal clock date change from February 29 to March 1 (both GMT), we have verified that the symptoms are now resolved and that users are able to use their PS3 normally."

688 Comments

  • HomeyLuv81

    Posted Mar 12, 2010 1:34 pm GMT

    @theKSMM
    I do understand how this consumer based economy works.. I was trying to point out that buying a product solely because it's American made is a bit short-sighted. (A point which you are more than aware of, I might add.)

  • Omaciel

    Posted Mar 8, 2010 11:38 am GMT

    @theKSMM
    oh i see yeah they really do just need to fix it permentantly
    but if they dont then i think i can deal with the playstation being down for 1 day out of the year

  • Waranabatokwa

    Posted Mar 4, 2010 8:58 pm GMT

    @MetalMan300

    uhm.. could you exclude me from your statement? you said ALL PS3 owners.. i won a slim so i wasn't included.. thank you..

  • redskinStu

    Posted Mar 4, 2010 3:45 pm GMT

    "perhaps millions--of owners of pre-2009 PS3s "

    Get bent, what a bunch of sh**.

    Millions, get a life.

  • redskinStu

    Posted Mar 4, 2010 3:15 pm GMT

    What a non-story, but great for Sony-haters like Gamespot and Kotaku.

  • charmed_star

    Posted Mar 4, 2010 2:44 pm GMT

    @Jstation3 - I'm really sorry to hear that. This isn't meant to be a stupid, obvious question... but did you completely shut down your PS3 and turn the power off (in the back), then reboot? Sometimes you have do that. Since it's actually a computer you have to treat it like one and let it clear itself out. I hope you're up and gaming online again soon. :-)

  • Jstation3

    Posted Mar 4, 2010 1:44 pm GMT

    that's bs, I can't get online no more since it happened.

  • smoman5000

    Posted Mar 4, 2010 11:46 am GMT

    lmao, huge amounts of people were freaking out

    "this isnt over yet! i predict a second coming!"

    "sony is horrible! i hate it so much!" ::tries to turn his ps3 on::

    the next day and all those "omgfatps3!!!" topics were buried deep into the forums, shows what bad habits do to people when you take it away for just 24 hours

  • Bradley7777

    Posted Mar 4, 2010 11:42 am GMT

    @charmed_star I agree. At first I was sucked up by this stupid console war, but now I have learnt that both consoles are good in their own ways. they have their pros and cons but we cant help that and as you said and Forrest Gump said... "$h!t happens"

  • charmed_star

    Posted Mar 4, 2010 11:38 am GMT

    Yet AGAIN, why does this matter? This PS3 and 360 fighting is just ridiculous. Bottom line, crap happens. To everyone and to everything. Do people really need to feel so much better than everyone else that they have to highlight an f-up to a console just because it's on one you DON'T have? That's just silly as hell. I'm a gamer. I love games... I love consoles... any console (and I have them all). Majority of the time the instigating is from people who (unfortunately) can only afford the console they have, so they feel better digging on the other console. All I can picture is children pointing fingers and going "na-na, nuh-na-na, your PS3 crashed!" or na-na, nuh-na-na, you got a red ring of death!" Come on, people. Enough with this.

  • Autolycus

    Posted Mar 4, 2010 9:55 am GMT

    @Azorean and to make it even funnier, i know more about the ps3 then probably 95% of the people in here. But hey im just a clueless 360 fan according to your post.

  • Autolycus

    Posted Mar 4, 2010 9:53 am GMT

    :
    = Azorean269

    Posted Mar 2, 2010 4:43 pm PT

    @autolycus first you say "I come on here to complain about PS3" then you say "I just go the news site. If it pops up as news i wanna read, then i view it." Sounds to me that your just another 360 fanboy who's full of crap and just likes to rag on the ps3 because you still haven't gotten your 360 back...even thought its been like 3 1/2 week. Now go head all you other 360 fanboys lets see how many thumbs down this post gets.
    Whoa dude, get over yourself, you are nowhere even close. I've been involved with gaming for 20+ years. I have better things to do then be bitter at all the PS3 fanboys because they refuse to see that the 360 is just as good if not better. Again, you have a ps3...thats great. You like it, thats great. But it certainly isn't a better gaming system by any means than the 360. I have yet to see one game that is BETTER because its on the PS3. Whats up with installing demos and games anyways? I dont have that problem on XBLive and when i download a demo, its ready immediately. I dont have to wait 20 minutes for it to install. Its the number 1 negative thing in PSN

  • MetalMan300

    Posted Mar 4, 2010 8:52 am GMT

    @TheBatFreak777

    Actually it is. PS3 fans don't seem to get that new 360s don't get the Red Ring. I returned my one from launch a long time ago and have had no issues with my Xbox since. And this online crash happened to ALL PS3 owners, even though not all of them lost their trophies. So ALL online PS3's versus SOME 360's having Red Ring (since again, new ones don't have problems)... I think that makes quite a bit of sense.

    Thank you for agreeing that my logic is indeed impeccable. Hahahaha.

  • Boozer11

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 11:25 pm GMT

    wow seriously guys! is this really such a big deal?!

  • angelcar

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 10:20 pm GMT

    Also, who's to say this won't happen again next year?? They better freaking fix it, because do not kid yourselves, this is NOT fixed yet.

  • angelcar

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 10:18 pm GMT

    Yeah, I lost 3 story-related AC2 trophies that I earned while playing on ApocalyPS3 Sunday. As of right now I can't get them back unless I start a new game and earn them again. No word yet from Sony regarding my complaint on the matter. By them taking a look at my saved game it's pretty obvious that I've earned those trophies, so hopefully they'll do right by me. I'm not too hopeful, though...

  • laofuzi300

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 10:02 pm GMT

    I didn't have any problem.

  • Hekynn

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 8:07 pm GMT

    See guys you gotta love it when a company is good to its costumers.

  • Amnesiac23 Site moderator

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 8:03 pm GMT

    The one week that I decide not to play my PS3, something like this happens...never thought I would say it, but thank you mid terms! Saved myself a lot of stress.

  • thorsen-ink

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 7:45 pm GMT

    @superjosh64 Yes. Fire away.

  • superjosh64

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 6:16 pm GMT

    so is it ok to turn on your PS3 now? just making sure

  • Xx619MysterioxX

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 4:43 pm GMT

    @Jbreynolds: Lol, At Least you didn't have your 8th. Now i only have a back up. Now, i feel no need to pay for Live. Wasting more and more money. and it's Utter s**t
    So my PS3 is my Main gaming Rig, and my 360 is for Exclusives only. But i gave my Older ps3 to my bro as i got the Slim, so it didn't effect me.

  • charmed_star

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 2:00 pm GMT

    And just a friendly reminder... it should be automatic... as soon as you finish playing a game you need to backup your Save file (if possible). For certain games lately (i.e. AC II and Heavy Rain), you can't backup your Save file, which I ROYALLY dislike (maybe the files are too large). But you should backup EVERY time you finish playing a game to avoid any mishaps, be it your fault or the console's.

  • charmed_star

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 1:53 pm GMT

    Wow, people... if something REALLY catastrophic happens to you, what the heck will you do? LOL... Seriously though, I understand being upset but it's not the end of the world. I laughed and was like "what the hell?!" when I looked at the time on a save from a game I just finished playing at it had 2020 as the year! When I went to do an online time/date update (to no avail) then went to login to go the PSN store (to no avail) is when I discovered the problem. I kept trying to login then gave up and went back to playing games offline. The world didn't stop spinning. The sky didn't fall. And before anyone trips, I am a serious, longtime, hardcore gamer and I love, LOVE my games, but it's no sense getting upset over things you can't control. Now, my trophy count was correct but I didn't think to look at the list, and all of my saves were there. But whatever... as long as it's fixed, it's game on. I applaud them for acknowledging the problem and fixing it as quickly as humanly possible. And it wasn't like your console had died and was useless.

  • Get_Shorty

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 9:50 am GMT

    So has Sony figured out a way to get our hard earned trophies back besides "re-syncing with server" which doesn't get back all of them?! :-@

  • Quezakolt

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 9:32 am GMT

    Its weird, I a 8xxxxx-range type network error all the type yesterday night on my PS3 Slim. It was cutting off my wifi connection. When I was not logged in the PSN it worked fine. _(o_x)_

  • alex_mck

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 9:13 am GMT

    POT's comment > All the fanboy comments I have ever read on Gamespot

  • Kiriyama12

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 8:23 am GMT

    Been a long time PC gamer, planning on buying PS3, hope I won't encounter any of these.

  • P0T

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 7:22 am GMT

    Ugh....so lame to read comments on a PS3 or a 360 story. It is always the same religious fanboys arguing over and over, acting like their chosen console is their effing spouse. Own both systems and you realize how stupid fanboydom is.

  • RHoque92

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 7:21 am GMT

    this is wierd, the trophies for some of my games are gone but when i compare them with someone they appear exactly how they were before and even update when i got a new trophy and they show up on my id. When i was playin i also suddenly began to unlock trophies which i already had, one after the other.

    since my trophies are gone on some of my games but are still fully there on my psn id and when i compare trophies, will i hav to replay the game again to unlock the older trophies on to my ps3 in order to platinum? its wierd that my trophies aren't there on my ps3 but are still shown on my id and when i compare trophies. man is anyone else having this problem...

  • atopp399

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 7:10 am GMT

    So this will happen every 4th year then? What happens on the next real leap year?

  • theKSMM

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 6:55 am GMT

    @Omaciel:

    I know because Sony never released a statement saying that they had done anything. There was no update or software to download. My system today is no different than it was on February 27th.

    They said: Don't turn your systems on for 24 hours.
    (Of course it was already too late for most of us by the time we heard that.)

    Then 24 hours later they said: Okay, it works now.

    That's why I keep reiterating that they didn't do anything.

    People keep rating my comments negatively like I was talking about their mothers, but I guess fanboys don't like hearing anyone speak negatively about Sony.

    Don't get me wrong, I love my PlayStation 3, but that doesn't mean I'll just take whatever crap Sony decides to feed me.

  • theKSMM

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 6:48 am GMT

    @HomeyLuv81:

    From an economic perspective, the difference is supporting a console assembled and designed overseas versus supporting a console that was assembled overseas but designed in America. It does add up make a difference to the economy (GDP).

    The bottom line is that Sony and Microsoft make much more money from the sale of each console than their assembly plants do.

  • RufusChambers

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 6:05 am GMT

    @jjk123456

    Support our local economy? OH! You mean buy an Xbox?

    Yeah, that makes sense - don't give money to old rich Japanese men, instead give it to an obscenely rich white guy.....wait, what?

  • shawn_mitchel

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 5:08 am GMT

    I lost my whole Dragon Age : origins save data due to this problem, first as a warrior and my current play was as a rougue. For me, the problem was only affecting Dragon age and Demon souls.

    I felt my dragon age save data was corrupt, so i deleted them. And now , Sony is saying the problem was caused by an internal malfunctioning clock ? I can't play Dragon age : origins for a third time, I've got other things to do,...especially school works. I was keeping that save data for the next Dragon age release. This is not fair,......when the next Dragon Age comes out, i would not be able to see how my actions and decisions in "origins" would play out or affect it.

  • brendanhunt1

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 4:57 am GMT

    jjk123456
    1. I like buying advance things
    2. Not everyone on this website is american

  • gy1373

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 4:52 am GMT

    I just don't want this to happen again....-__-...
    I'm really glad they got the problem "fixed"...but it just seemed that the problem solved itself after 24 hours...a day after the system's calendar confusion...:S

  • HomeyLuv81

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 4:03 am GMT

    @ jjk123456

    I don't really get your argument of buying domestic.. A lot of products that are "American made," have that stamped somewhere on it. However, the parts are assembled in countries where the labor is cheaper. Therefore, is it really buying American, if the labor is not performed in the continental U.S.? That said, I hope that this doesn't mean that I'll eventually have to buy a slim soon.. That would suck..

  • acer_062

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 3:47 am GMT

    What next

  • alchmstf

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 3:26 am GMT

    This is what you call a "event horizon" Older Sony PlayStation 3 models experienced temporary difficulties on 1st March 2010 when the internal calendar wrongly identified 2010 as a leap year, and attempted to move from 28th February to 29th February, instead of the correct 1st March. also not all fat ps3's were effected

  • richioso

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 3:11 am GMT

    @jjk123456

    Patriotism FAIL.

  • MC_Bally_Who

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 1:58 am GMT

    Don't get me wrong, I love games, and I love PS3, but is it really the end of the world if you can't get online for a couple of days or lose your trophies? Sure it's annoying, but im sure many of you have got over a corrupt memory card or whatever on older consoles in the past. I think its worrying how a slight technical hitch can cause such an outcry, especially since PSN is free afterall.

  • hannify

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 12:58 am GMT

    @jjk123456
    You are supporting your local economy by buying consoles/games in your area. Only time your not doing that is when your importing.

    I think i would rather support sony than microsoft who already have more money than sense. Even though i already own all the consoles and handhelds

  • jjk123456 posted Mar 3, 2010 12:36 am GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    jjk123456

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 12:36 am GMT (hide)

    all you Sony Fanboys...

    you are blindly supporting a Japanese Company that sells overpriced products around the world...

    support your own local economy... stop singing the praises of a bunch of rich old Japanese executives...

  • hannify

    Posted Mar 3, 2010 12:31 am GMT

    Omg.... Sony didn't fix anything..... they waited for 24 hours and it fixed itself.

  • UnrealLegend

    Posted Mar 2, 2010 11:12 pm GMT

    Wow, I'm so glad I didn't lose my platinum trophy, and that its not just my console thats screwing up.

    Aww man, all my Xbox-loving friends will be convinced that PS3 is crappy. But then again, sony managed to fix it.

  • Krystyan68

    Posted Mar 2, 2010 10:17 pm GMT

    No big deal, as long as its fixed before God of War3 comes out!!

  • Petch1984

    Posted Mar 2, 2010 10:07 pm GMT

    rant part 2... You can create interactive drama but if someone has to re-load the game six times just as the story gets interesting then inadvertently you have destroyed a portion of your own hard work. I like the game...but why should I have to make allowances for glitches/bugs/freezes that games far inferior and much less original don't have?

    p.s these issues are unrelated to the 1st march crash....but still...wtf

  • Petch1984

    Posted Mar 2, 2010 9:52 pm GMT

    Just finished Heavy Rain...Great game but buggy as hell. I've tried re-installing it, playing without the update, swapping for a new disk at the store - all to no avail. My friends have had similar problems and there are numerous forums stating the exact same thing. They need another patch/update!!! and it's only been out a week.

    All in all it has been the worst week I've had with a Playstation, I remember the useless lasers they sent out with the early PSones....But for me it is always worst when software doesn't work (you can't kick software).

  • cometkd

    Posted Mar 2, 2010 9:34 pm GMT

    this just shows how smart the Ps3 is and how the Ps3 does everything!!!!!!!! still love SONY! and my Ps3!

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