Another blow for fans of retro games. On Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita, several users find themselves unable to play their titles because of… an expiration date. Bug or drastic decision from Sony? For the moment nothing is certain, but the mysterious phenomenon is starting to make people talk about it.

THE STRANGE PHENOMENON OF EXPIRED GAMES

Several PlayStation users are currently reporting a very mysterious thing. Indeed, many owners of Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita find themselves unable to play retro games acquired in dematerialized form. The cause? Their copy would simply be outdated. It was when a user shared his situation with the game Chrono Cross that the phenomenon gained momentum. Thus, it is impossible for him to launch the title of Square Enix since its copy expired … in December 1969. A funny situation that has enough to stir up anger.

The ports concerned are only those of the Playstation 3 and the Playstation Vita. If for a while people experiencing this problem thought of a decision on the part of Sony and Square Enix to push players to buy the Radical Dreamers remaster of Chrono Cross, it seems that other titles are affected, like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI. But it’s not just Square Enix titles that are impacted, as several players are reporting that their entire catalog is now unavailable for the same expiration date issues, with 1969 or 1970 as the years cited. Finally, it seems that not all copies are affected from user to user, and from console to console.

BUG OR EDITOR CHOICE? RADIO SILENCE ON SONY’S SIDE

According to our colleagues at Kotaku, the problem could come from a bug involving the “Unix Epoch”, an arbitrary start date set to 1970. A malfunction in Sony’s system would then reset the date of expiry of these copies on the arbitrary date of 1970.

For the moment, nothing has been confirmed and the mystery remains. Sony has been contacted by several affected users, while Kotaku has also contacted them directly, with no response. Anyway, the situation remains particularly frustrating for those affected and we obviously expect a quick response from Sony.