If you are a PS3 owner don’t worry you are not the only one out there having gaming problems today as countless other players are experiencing the 8001050F error code. I was playing Aliens vs. Predator when I stopped to check out my game trophies, the next thing my system froze so I restarted it only to be met with “Registration of the trophy information could not be completed. The game will quit.” - naturally I assumed it was a network error so I tried to sign back into the playstation network with no luck, soon after I realised that the trophies themselves for AVP had completely disappeared. This of course worried me but it turns out its not just my system it’s the entire network & every playstation user on it. Sony have acknowledged the network crash & are currently dealing with it, lucky for myself its after 2:00am so I’m off to bed soon - Sony’s official response is the following: “We’re aware that many of you are having problems connecting to PSN, and yes, we’re looking into it. Stay tuned for updates.”- whatever is going on with the network you have to wonder what kind of a glitch stops users from playing a gaming title offline.[update]
It first seemed like the problem was with the PSN, however it does not seem to be caused by the service anymore - as only older models are affected. Some users are speculating that the error is tied to the internal calendar or clock function of the machine (my clock reset) - there are theories that, since the incidences seem to have begun on the transition from February to March, a leap year miscalculation may be involved. even new consoles that have never been used online are being affected by the bug with game saves being corrupted, News sources are reporting that game saves should be fine once the bug has corrected itself or after a firmware update. However, it's unclear what will happen with trophies.
The advice at the moment for all owners is, if you have a pre-Slim model, don't even switch it on until some clear guidance comes through; and certainly not today. It'll be tough for recent purchasers of Heavy Rain - the game was out this weekend and requires a download update before you can play. Sony had this to say "Know that we have narrowed down the issue and have engineers working to restore service even as you read this. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you, and genuinely appreciate your patience while we work to resolve this." - however the company's Tokyo headquarters said shortly afterwards that it had yet to determine the problem that had caused so many consoles to be denied access to the network.
Sony has suggested concerned playstation users follow its Twitter feed for the latest news.
My own trophy info is still on the server when accessed through a pc
Many are saying the error will correct itself 24hrs after the bug hit as other similar machines facing the same problem have done, the biggest issue with gamers seems to be that their trophies may be forever lost. I already checked mine and the only ones that seem to be gone are my AVP ones, they are not on the PS3 but when I go to the playstation network through my computer they are still there (except the last 3 predator ones I earned) - again this is annoying but seeing that the data is on the server still I'm not as worried as I was. I'll be away from my PS3 for the next 2 days but I have one in my apartment too so I'll be checking that one later tonight. How a massive company like Sony didn't see this coming is beyond me, lets hope they have a fix for this soon rather than waiting 24hrs to see if it fixes itself.
Sony spokesperson Patrick Seybold: “We believe we have identified that this problem is being caused by a bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system.” - half the playstation community could have told them that hours ago. Mine crashed about 18 hours ago so if after 2:00am the clock doesn't switch over i'll start to really worry.
[Fin!]
And so it went that all the PS3's came back to life after the dreaded Y2K-like bug, it was fairly serious at the time & a lot of questions still have to be answered but i'm just glad to have my system back.
