Expired digital PS Vita and PS3 games can no longer be played

Players on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita are having trouble accessing their digital purchases after certain games suddenly showed a strange expiration date, as first reported by Kotaku. The issue appears to be mostly affecting classic titles, preventing users from playing Chrono Cross and Chrono Player, and Final Fantasy VI because the games are now expired.

But here’s the weird part: expiration dates are half a century in the past. Twitter user Christopher Voss Shares an image For Him Chrono Cross The download shows the game will expire on December 31, 1969, at 7:20 pm. He says the problem only started after re-downloading the game and now he can’t play it on PS3 and PS Vita.

GamesHub editor Edmund Tran similarly found he couldn’t play Chrono Cross on PS3 thanks to its 52-year expiration date. And while Tran says he can still play the classic title on his PS Vita, he couldn’t find the listing on the PS Vita Store, an indication that Sony may have deleted it. other users on Reddit and Twitter also reported the issue with Rune Ocean Factory and Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition and Gex: Enter the Gecko and for some your entire digital library.

As mentioned in various threads and posts regarding this issue, some gamers say they have tried factory resetting their consoles, subscribing and unsubscribing from PlayStation Plus, and restoring their game licenses, all to no avail. PlayStation has yet to acknowledge the situation, and the game company hasn’t immediately responded to Edge’s request for comment.

However, there is a possible reason for this. Kotaku points out that the problem may have been caused by a bug causing the PS Vita and PS3 to revert game license expiration dates to the Unix era, or an arbitrary time and date set by developers, to set the beginning of the console’s lifespan.

While this is just a glitch, there is concern that Sony is dealing another blow to the PS3 and PS Vita stores. Distance The gaming company nearly closed both stores last year making it harder for them to shop Take away the ability to use credit cards or PayPal to make purchases.