Since yesterday evening, PlayStation 3 users have been reporting difficulties in connecting their consoles to the PlayStation Network for online gameplay and system updates. While it was first thought to be a network-related issue, Sony has warned that there is a much more widespread issue currently affecting older PlayStation 3's.

Sony's offical statement lists the following errors as a part of this internal clock bug:

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.

"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," Sony warned this afternoon.


The company hopes to have the issue resolved by tomorrow.