Digital PS3 and PS Vita games rendered unplayable after ‘expiring’

theverge.com:

Players on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita are having trouble accessing their digital purchases after a strange expiration date suddenly appeared on certain games, as first reported by Kotaku. The problem seems to mostly affect classic titles, preventing users from playing Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy VI, as the games are now “expired.”

But here’s the odd part: the expiration dates are dated half a century in the past. Twitter user Christopher Foose shared an image of his Chrono Cross download, which shows that the game expired on December 31st, 1969 at 7:20 PM. He says the issue only occurred after redownloading the game, and that he’s now unable to play it on PS3 and PS Vita.

So did <a href=«https://twitter.com/PlayStation?ref_src=» https: www.theverge.com>@PlayStation

expire the PSOne Classics versions of <a href=«https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChronoCross?src=hash&ref_src=» https: www.theverge.com>#ChronoCross and <a href=«https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChronoTrigger?src=hash&ref_src=» https: www.theverge.com>#ChronoTrigger by setting the date on new downloads to 12/31/1969? This is preventing me from playing my purchased copies on Vita and PS3. <a href=«https://twitter.com/ModernVintageG?ref_src=» https: www.theverge.com>@ModernVintageG <a href=«https://twitter.com/dark1x?ref_src=» https: www.theverge.com>@dark1x pic.twitter.com/wxRebNIZWh

GamesHub editor Edmond Tran similarly found he was unable to play Chrono Cross on the PS3 thanks to a 52-year-old expiration date. And while Tran says he could still play the classic title on his PS Vita, he wasn’t able to find the listing on the PS Vita store, a sign that Sony may have taken it down. Other users on Reddit and Twitter also reported the issue with