PlayStation 3 2010 Leap Year Issue

So, it turns out that the PlayStation 3 problem (or PlayStation 3 ‘blackout’ as it has come to be known) on the 1st of March 2010 was resolved on the turn of midnight on the same day. To resolve this issue, it turns out Sony did… nothing.

As assumed by many PlayStation 3 users, the issue was not related to the PlayStation Network but was, in fact, an issue with the hardware in the (non-slim) PlayStation 3 models. The on-board clock on the PlayStation 3 assumed the date on the 1st of March was in fact, the non-existant 29th of February. At the same time, the operating system clock believed the date was, as it actually was, the 1st of March.

We can assume Sony believed the best option was to merely await this automatic ‘fix’ that occured at midnight, rather than to develop, test and release an emergency update to all old model PlayStation 3 models. This is most likely due to a strict policy on testing such system updates. This choice to delay may be looked at as a bad action by some people, however imagine the dangerous alternative. If Sony were to have released a rushed update to all old PlayStation 3 models… and it bricked the consoles (i.e. made them inoperable) – imagine the up roar then?

What do you think Sony should have done?

Frankly, I think they should have been more thorough in the initial testing of the PlayStation 3 components, such as, perhaps, the on-board clock…

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