http://www.joystiq.com/2010/02/28/psn-is-down-some-titles-experiencing-game-crashing-errors/
http://kotaku.com/5482328/ps3s-suffering-from-global-network-lockdown
PS3's are going down the world over, rumors abound that PSN has been hacked. Trophy's and/or game saves are corrupting in some cases, Sony's "looking into it" but so far no one really knows what's happening.
But the following Kotaku comment may be the key to all this:
Another rumor on the bug:
The going theory is that the PS3 is storing some form of date in GMT, then modifying that to get whatever you see in the on-screen clock. That modification process seems to be fine--the system can take 2/28/2010, 9PM GMT, add four hours, and get 3/1/2010, 1AM random time zone.
What's apparently effed, as speculation goes, is when the internal GMT-tracking rolls over to 3/1. It's either not rolling, or rolling to 2/29, at which point a system tries to add/subtract from 2/29, which it can't do because the front-end calendar doesn't have a 2/29/2010, and +*$! explodes. Seemed to happen around 4PM PDT, which I think is 12AM GMT, so.
And the PS3 launched in 2006; it's hit 4 2/28s so far. 2007 and 2009 were odd-numbered years; 2008 was an even, and a leap year. 2010 is the first even non-leap-year the system's been around for. If some sort of base-level math is choking on itself, it may have ruled out the odd 2007 and 2009 successfully, but is convinced the even 2010 is a leap year (this part I'm less sure of, but is why leap year could theoretically come into play at some point.)
from SRK.
So all I know is, the bizarre date has caused the anti-piracy measures to kick in, screwing you out of most PS3 titles. PS1/PS2 physical games should still work. Not PSN, though. and us.playstation.com wasn't really hacked, either.
Sorry to all of you who are worked up about this, but I find it kinda exciting. Sucks if this is permanent, though. I think it might have happened before, though."
Revenge of Y2K! Sort of. Well, beats the other rumours that suggested a major PSN hacking incident or Sony dicking around with OtherOS on fat PS3's in order to stem off potential lulz due to the George Hotz hack. Nothing's confirmed, though. I'd suggest keeping the PS3 off until Sony releases a statement.
"PSN trouble looks potentially messy since my debug's not been Net connected and it's out too. Probably not a quick fix. about 1 hours ago via Seesmic"
lol, looks like that date roll over might be it after all...
Yeesh, I thought the PSN was quiet tonight. Now I know why 
Hmm...so it's believed that the date and time is the cause of all this, when the system tries to modify the visual time from GMT to whatever? Soooo...what happens if the visual time is set to GMT, because you live in the UK? Are those players immune? Might explain why I was able to play with no trouble tonight, even over the turn of the month (12 midnight).
Hang about though, how long has this been going on? I'm right in assuming it's only today that it's surfaced, right? Because I have been getting one or two lockups more than I used to just recently, and my LBP game keeps coming up with some kind of error message - nothing that affects the gamelay in any way, it just pops up to say hello when I boot up the game.
I've only just (two or three weeks ago) had my PS3 replaced due to 3 Beeps of Death, I sure hope I don't need to get another one...
Seems really weird if it's an internal clock issue (Thinking it's a leap year when it, well isn't). Though I really suck at computer knowledge that deep so I dunno.
From what I've heard, it only seems to affect older PS3's, aka anything not a slim.
Everyone READ THIS PLEASE.
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.
If I have a bugged PS3, can I still use it?
It's probably not a good idea, as I have no idea what will happen to the trophies you earn during the bugged time. Movies/media will work fine.
So there ya go, my handy FAQ.
So those with Slims (like myself) aren't affected. Apparently. Sucks to be a first-adopter, I guess. They're always getting screwed!
^ I just saw that at the GAF. Damn they work fast.
It's definitely a bug with the internal clock (not the visual, which is the one we can manually set and see on the XMB). All PS3s subject to this bug will be affected if they're turned on February 29th and/or March 1st (GMT time, that is). No one knows for sure if it can be avoided if you were to wait until March 2nd, but that's the great white hope. Meanwhile, there are a lot of borked PS3s out there. I don't envy Sony's position right now.
Final Fantasy XIII's release is coming up. Talk about bad timing.
EDIT: Speaking of working fast...
EDIT: Fixed by morning?
So people are actually going as far to remove the battery and all to try and get it working. Really now? Be glad this happened before say GOW3 hit. Imagine the furor then.
Fix by morning? Well we'll see. I have my various Sega systems and SNES to tide me over.
As I said above, I have an older PS3 but I don't seem to be affected. I haven't turned it on today yet, but last night I was playing with no problems. Here's hoping it stays that way^^
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that this PS3 is only a couple of weeks old, even though it isn't a slimline. Maybe they fixed something in the newer-old models before shipping them out to be replacements?
Some official words:
"...we advise that you do not use your PS3 system..." ~ Sony
Some very good and sound advice 
now everyone crack out your PS1s! 
Speaking of Furor...or rather...Fuhrer: http://www.youtube.com/wa...&feature=player_embedded
Even hitler, it seems, has been affected by this outcome...poor guy only wanted his trophy's synched! D:
On topic...yup, I'm down too. >: Fuuuuuuudge, I hope they can fix this massive Fail!
I'm hearing the network is back up. If you were afflicted it is advised that you test your connection and reset the clock before connecting to PSN. If you have missing trophies you'll need to load the appropriate game, exit back to the XMB and re-synch.
I suggest everyone just read the thread for this on Neogaf. You thought TV Tropes was a time waster? lolz
Wellp, I tried my PS3 this evening and still no problems - in fact, the curious little error message I got when LBP starts up, the one that had precisely no effect on the gameplay whatsoever, is gone now too so I dunno wether that was related in any way. I did get it a number of days before all this started off though.
I was out of town this whole time and haven't had access to my pc/ps3, so I had no idea this happened. Turned my ps3 on and everything is good, so thats a relief.
