Without CMOS PS4 Blocks Access to Games; Internet Investigates
Internet user known as Forest has confirmed rumors of a problem with the PlayStation 4 console's CMOS battery. It seems that after it fails, the PS4 really does block access to all games, even those on disc.
Remember the reports from March that the CMOS battery failure could permanently cut off PlayStation 4 owners from all games, even those on disc? A Twitter user known as Forest decided to test these rumors on his own copy of the device. The result? After removing the component, the console prevented the user from launching any titles without a connection to PlayStation Network, neither digital games nor boxed.
According to earlier reports, CE-34878-0 error is linked to the trophy system, which requires a system time match (unmodifiable by the user), probably to prevent cheating to unlock achievements. One of the games tested by Forest - Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy - had no unlockable achievements, which apparently some will take as evidence refuting the claim.
It should be noted that Atelier Ryza 2 does support trophies, and there's no reason to believe that not unlocking any of them "disables" the need for system time confirmation. The fact that the game launches initially, and only shuts down at the loading screen, could be indicative of just a bug in the trophy file verification. The real test would be to try to open a title without any trophies, for example, a demo version. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this message, no information about running such type of test was available.
It's easy to guess that PS4 owners are disappointed by this discovery, to put it mildly. The inability to run any games, even those on disc, sounds absurd. Yes, it's not the end of the world as long as PlayStation Network works - we just have to replace the CMOS battery and let the console automatically set the time after connecting to the platform (more on that in the previous news). However, there are voices on the web calling for the restriction to be lifted in a firmware update. The question is whether Sony will decide on this, most likely serious, update for the console, which already lived to see a successor some time ago?
