Your PS4 Could Break At Any Minute

The PlayStation brand has grown tremendously over the years, and the PS4 era of gaming brought some particularly incredible experiences to players. From God of War to The Last of Us Part 2, every PS4 owner has their favorite titles that they return to time and time again. However, PlayStation has also seen some dark days, and Sony fans may have a new issue on their hands. 

According to hackers and video game preservationists, the PS4's days may be numbered. A specific issue with the PS4's internal clock and the way the console processes Trophies may actually end up bricking your PS4.

Media preservation account Does It Play recently posted that fans of the PS4 should be aware of a glitch with the console's internal clock battery, which could kill all of their games. Does It Play tweeted, "when the PS4 CMOS battery dies (and it will) it renders all PS4 digital files unusable without a server reconnection and in PS4 it also kills disc playback." 

Hacker Lance McDonald piggybacked off of this statement, explaining that the CMOS battery is used to track when players earn Trophies. The CMOS battery cannot be altered by the player through normal means, which is meant to prevent players from faking their Trophy timestamps. This makes it so that players cannot "make it look like they got trophies earlier than they really did," says McDonald. Unfortunately, this comes with the side effect of your games becoming unplayable if the CMOS battery fails. 

According to McDonald, players have a few options to fix their PS4's internal clock if it resets: by connecting to the PlayStation Network or jailbreaking their console and fixing it manually. However, McDonald has pointed out that PSN is only a viable solution for as long as Sony utilizes it. If and when PlayStation Network is ever discontinued as a service, it may become impossible to reset the internal clock through legal means.

IGN India reached out to Does It Play for a comment on the situation. IGN India pointed out that it is possible for PS4 owners to replace their CMOS, but the longterm reality of this issue is worse than people think. Does It Play told IGN India, "CMOS can only have [its] time fixed by PSN or hacks. The fact it kills discs is lunacy."

Sony has yet to respond to IGN India's requests for a comment on the situation. As long as PSN still exists, a failed internal clock isn't the end of the world. In the meantime, McDonald expressed his hope that Sony would release a firmware update in the future that would prevent this system error from killing game playback, but he did not seem optimistic.