PlayStation Working To Fix Error Code That Can Brick All PS4 Consoles

As you may have heard, a group of gamers have uncovered a potentially troubling error that will, at some point, affect all PlayStation 4 consoles by wiping them and leaving them bricked.

Earlier this year, video game preservation Twitter account Does It Play? alerted everyone to Error CE 34878-0 for the PlayStation 4. This is basically an issue that occurs when the console's internal battery clock packs in. Once the battery dies, and that's a matter of when and not if, every digital file on the console becomes useless unless you can reconnected to the server.

Dataminer Lance McDonald added that this mass data loss is tied to PlayStation Trophies. Trophies on PS4 need the internal system clock to be correct, so that you cant cheat or lie about when you earned a certain Trophy. In short, he warned that "If your PS4 clock battery dies, all your games die".

The battery can be replaced, but the catch is that you need to connect to the server to get your wiped games back. While it's unlikely that Sony will ever completely do away with the PlayStation Network, there is a possible future in which the service is changed or moved, or even taken down completely. This might not happen anytime soon, but there's very much a chance that decades from now, your PlayStation 4 will be nothing more than a novelty doorstop.

"Just to emphasise: you can fix this by just putting a new battery in then syncing your console to the PSN once," McDonald stressed at the time. "We are just pointing out that the console will be bricked in some imaginary distant future when the PSN goes away (if ever?)."

The good news is that Sony seems to be aware of the issue and has set about working on it. According to Does It Play?, internal sources at Sony have confirmed the company is looking at the error now and very much "wants to get on top of it".

Hopefully Sony can sort this particular error out. I don't want to pull my PS4 down from the attic 50 years from now to show my grandkids God Of War only to find it's been rendered completely useless.

Topics: GAMING, News, PlayStation