PS4 may one day refuse to play games if these reports are accurate

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There's a very real possibility that your PS4 will be left completely unable to play games one day without the aid of jailbreaking it, though it remains distant for now.

The alarming issue surfaced this week when prominent system hacker and Bloodborne 60FPS modder Lance McDonald explained what a PS4's CMOS battery failing means on his Twitter account.

The battery powers the most fundamental parts of your PS4, helping it store information such as the base system clock which cannot be changed by users, and like any battery, it will eventually fail. If you've ever tried to save your game on an old Nintendo cartridge and found your file gone the next time you powered it up, you've already experienced something like this.


While your PS4 will still boot up with the CMOS battery dead, a quirk of how the console validates trophy data means it will only let you play games if the system clock can update - that goes for both downloaded and disc-based games. The only way the system clock can update is by connecting to PSN. All this means that, potentially decades from now when your PS4's battery has failed and Sony has pulled PSN offline, your PS4 may simply refuse to play any games.

This issue could still be solved by Sony changing how PS4 handles validating trophies in a firmware update, and failing that, you could jailbreak your console to avoid the problem. In other words, this doesn't have to be an extended death sentence for your console - but if McDonald is accurate, and nothing changes, it will be. I've asked Sony Interactive Entertainment if it can confirm or deny McDonald's info and will update this story with any response.



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Related Forum: PlayStation Forum

Source: https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/your-ps4-may-one-day-refuse-to-play-any-games-if-these-reports-are-accurate/

Comments

"PS4 may one day refuse to play games if these reports are accurate" :: Login/Create an Account :: 2 comments

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xGSxCoachPosted:

Mario350 i honestly doubt it, the only thing that it has right is when the servers are no long accessible youre unable to play digital games(go on test it without psn being signed in) and no downloads.

this could also be true for every console thats been released that uses discs, its simply not true, would be stupid if they designed it that in 10 years the ps4 dies, the ps4 is nearing 10years so again stupid because they know not everyone upgrades all the time/loves to play retro games


Wrong, this is the same as the pokemon cartridge battery dying. Only I'm not sure replacing the battery is as easy.

Mario350Posted:

i honestly doubt it, the only thing that it has right is when the servers are no long accessible youre unable to play digital games(go on test it without psn being signed in) and no downloads.

this could also be true for every console thats been released that uses discs, its simply not true, would be stupid if they designed it that in 10 years the ps4 dies, the ps4 is nearing 10years so again stupid because they know not everyone upgrades all the time/loves to play retro games