Do you know what today’s date is? Yup, it’s March 1st, 2010. Do you know what the PSN date is? Apparently, it thinks it’s February 29th, 2010… LEAP YEAR. That’s right, Leap Year is what caused this massive network downtime for most PS3 customers. The PS3 thinks Leap Year is every two years. Unfortunatley, this issue is related only to hardware since the PS3 Slims
aren’t reporting any issues (newest PS3 model). The internal clock thinks it’s Feb. 29th, while the OS clock does not have the date 02/29/10 available since it doesn’t exist. This is causing the older model PS3’s back to 12/31/99. For those wondering, this issue did not happen in 2008, because it was a leap year then. Look out 2012.. the end of the world and PSN Leap Year!

This issue is preventing any PS3 games to played on their currently “bricked” systems. For now, if you haven’t turned on your PS3, Don’t! You run the risk of corrupting data saves, PSN purchases including videos, games etc. and PS3 trophies.

Some major programming issues to the PS3 caused this issue and needs to be patched through firmware. But the problem will not be fixed by today. Today doesn’t exist! Stay tuned for more news. If the option to connect and patch exists, we’ll be sure to inform you how.

The PlayStation Network is currently experiencing issues.  The infamous “8001050F” error code is preventing user’s from signing in and it’s also effecting trophy based games.  For those with the new PlayStation slim, you will not have an issue.  Most problems are reported by older PS3 owners, 20GB, 40GB, 80GB versions and not the PS3 Slim
.  Sony is working on the problem and does not have an estimate on when the problem will be fixed.

Here is the error message:

8001050F – Hardware failure. Cannot update Firmware or connect to Internet

Games in particular that are seeing problems are Heavy Rain.  It seems the game reboots the console upon starting up the game.  While I know this may be frustrating, we’ll keep you updated on when the PSN will be back up and running.

Here is the latest message from Sony’s PlayStation’s Twitter:

We’re aware that many of you are having problems connecting to PSN, and yes, we’re looking into it. Stay tuned for updates.

PSN status update: We’re narrowing down the issue and continue to work to restore service to all. Updates as soon as we have them.

PSN status update (part 2): Readers/followers are confirming that “slim” units (120/250 GB models) are connecting normally.

UPDATE 1 (5:45pm EDT): PlayStation Network is still down. Sony also advises to stay off the PS3 since the game data and trophies may be affected.

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 play back certain rental video downloaded from the
PlayStation Store before the expiration date.

We hope to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours. In the meantime, if you have a model other than the new slim PS3, 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.

UPDATE 2 (6:23pm EDT):  Leap Year is apparently causing the problem. Read about it here.

UPDATE 3 (6:50pm EDT): Great News!  PSN is back up and running.  No official word from Sony.

Beginning tonight, October 14th, around 11 PM PST or October 15th, around 2 PM EST, the PlayStation Network will be down for some much needed maintenance for several hours.  During this time, some users won’t be able to access the PlayStation Store or account management, and may encounter some difficulty while signing in to PSN. Many are speculating PlayStation 3’s latest firmware will be released soon which will include cross-game chat which could be the reason for the down time.

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Yes, beginning at 8:00 AM PT (11:00 AM ET) today the PSN will be down for maintenance for four hours. You want to know why too?  Jeez, ok in lieu of the new 3.0 Firmware update, Sony will be preparing it’s network for the upgrade.  But there’s somewhat of good news that can come out of this.  If you’re logged in before-hand you will not be kicked off PSN and will continue to play online.  For those attempting to join online after 8 AM PT (11 AM ET), sorry… you won’t be able to play online games, download from store or anything else that requires you to login.

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