Sony Advise “Not To Use Your PS3″

Today just keeps on giving. Over on the US Blog, Patrick Seybold Senior Director, Corporate Communications & Social Media has posted an official response to what we’re calling Disaster Day.  Not that it’s a real disaster, of course (get some perspective!) but it’s still a wee bit shitty.

“As you may be aware, some customers have been unable to connect to the PlayStation Network today,” says the update.  “This problem affects the models other than the new slim PS3.  We believe we have identified that this problem is being caused by a bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system.”

Errors include:

• The date of the PS3 system may be re-set to Jan 1, 2000.
• When the user tries to sign-in to the PlayStation Network, the following message appears on the screen; “An error has occurred.  You have been signed out of PlayStation Network (8001050F)”.
• When the user tries to launch a game, the following error message appears on the screen and the trophy data may disappear; “Failed to install trophies.  Please exit your game.”
• When the user tries to set the time and date of the system via the Internet, the following message appears on the screen; “The current date and time could not be obtained. (8001050F)”
• Users are not able to playback certain rental video downloaded from the PlayStation Store before the expiration date.

Apparently the issue will be resolved “within the next 24 hours”.  “In the meantime,” says the press release, “if you have one of the above listed models, we advise that you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data.”

We’re sure this isn’t the end of the matter.  New PS3s (and fat 160GBs) aren’t affected.