The PS3 crisis is over

The world’s PS3s are working again.

After a day of panic and a what must have been a very long and nervous night for Sony execs, the internal clock bug that saw around 92 per cent of the globe’s PS3 consoles stop working correctly yesterday has been defeated thanks to the arrival of March 2nd.

It’s thought that one internal component of the console expected 2010 to be a leap year. When that proved not to be the case, severe problems materialised.

Fortunately, as soon as the day in question had passed the problems vanished just as quickly as they had arisen.

Sony has persisted in referring to the problem as a PSN bug – a moniker that arose when users first began complaining of being unable to connect to the network. Interestingly, Sony still seems to be describing events as if it itself somehow managed to initiate a worldwide fix overnight.

We have verified that the symptoms are now resolved and that users are able to use their PS3 normal,” Patrick Seybold said on the PS Blog.

If the time displayed on the XMB is still incorrect, users are able to adjust time settings manually or via the internet. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Considering the scale of what Sony must have been fearing, this is undoubtedly great news for both gamers and the platform holder – but it can be assured that March 1st 2010 will not be a day gamers soon forget.