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It’s over now, almost. The bug that caused PS3s worldwide to stop working has been spotted and disseminated according to this release from the hardware giant.

Great news, and gamers the world over are rejoicing, not all, some. But this whole situation has left many with questions and confusion; was all this really cause by a simple clock glitch? Games Thirst investigates.

On Sunday, February 28th, PlayStation 3s everywhere experienced a blackout; a code, 800 1050 F, turned the console into a vegetable for more than 24hrs. The gaming community went haywire, gamers were furious and curious at the same time. Some asked why did their PS3s, that had been offline since they purchased it stopped working? It was, and still is a relevant question. People started to think of conspiracy theories (which is a bit far fetched), but the question about Sony controlling the PS3 indeed is a good one. Well Sony short it down abruptly on Monday evening when everything came back to normal.

Here’s the release:

“The bug caused the clocks inside the PlayStation 3s to think that the date, February 29, 2010, existed when it didn’t,” said Makiko Noda, a spokeswoman at Sony Computer Entertainment, the company’s gaming arm. “The problem was resolved naturally when the date changed to March 1 GMT,” she said.

But that’s not enough. What about all the PSN problems? What caused them? And many gamers are still reporting that they are having problems to this day connecting to PSN. Also, they, including one of our own users is not only having issues connecting online, he also said his PS3’s Clock was on March 1st, although the day was the 2nd. Why didn’t the PS3 stopped working if this was just a simple clock glitch? We went on a fact finding mission.

So, can Sony really control your PS3, in your living room or bedroom right now, from anywhere?

The short answer is no (or at least we don’t think so), but there’s more to this story, and we’re not the only ones who think so. And so, if it was more than just a clock issue, why would PS3s worldwide, though offline, stop working? That’s impossible, unless something else, something we don’t know about is going on right? Wrong, well kinda. The clock glitch seems to be the overriding problem but there’s definitely more going on than the hardware giant would lead us to believe. we don’t know much about the PS3’s build but here’s what we know:

PlayStation 3 has inbult mechanism that can communicate via a remote device. A techie could probably suggest that such control is possible through bluetooth or infrared, but these devices have limited range of operation and hence cannot be controlled at a global level.

for Sony to be able to control the PS3 from anywhere in the world, it would need some sort of automated device that can be controlled via some sort of system. Now what would this device be is up for discussion. And we don’t think that such a device would even be legal, and being a law abiding company, the giant wouldn’t dare venture down thid lonely path.

This piece was written to shed some light on all the conspiracy talk circulating the web, suggesting that Sony can control its latest console, PS3, from anywhere and so we searched long and hard for any sliver of evidence pointing in the direction of said theory; however nothing solid was found, only chatter. NeoGAF’s thread was the best explanation around, even better than Sony’s own description on the matter.

It reads:

“Here’s what’s going on right now: something with the PS3’s internal clock has borked in some pre-slim models. This is not a PSN issue; it has to do with your PS3’s clock. This clock is NOT related to the OS clock. It seems to be a leap year bug. Setting your clock ahead will do nothing. All PS3s around the world were affected at the exact same time.

Does this affect me?

-If you have a Slim PS3, you’re good to go. Continue playing it as normal.
-If you have a “fat” PS3, you may be affected. Some fat PS3s have worked ok, but it seems a good majority have been bugged.

What does this bug mean?

-If affected, your date and time has been set to a random past date. This prevents you from signing into PSN, playing any PSN games, or using any DLC. Your trophies will also not display correctly or be able to sync.

How do I fix it?

-You can’t. Even if you don’t sign into PSN, it won’t help. This is a hardware issue.

So, what do I do?

-Wait 24 hours. Other products that have had similar bugs have corrected themselves after the “bugged” day. On Monday around 6pm central time, all PS3s will automatically correct themselves…maybe.

-If that doesn’t work, we’ll need a firmware update from Sony, which should be a pretty important priority for them right now.

Did I lose my data/themes/etc?

Your save data/games/dlc/themes are fine. They’ll be fixed when the PS3 is fixed. Trophies are uncertain right now, but they’ll be fine if you’ve synced them before the PS3 was bugged. Unsynced trophies are an unknown right now.”

Explanation from Via NeoGAF

Will Sony ever come out and release all that took place within its walls on February 28th? Maybe, maybe not, but there’s one thing for sure, it’s not what many have been fearing; only you can control your PS3. Well, you and a leap year.

Theory banished. Game On.