So there's some kind of horrendous kablooie that's affecting original model (non-slim) PS3s, resulting in non-functioning games, corrupted save data, and an inability to access the PSN.
Joystiq reported that owners of older-model PS3s saw their systems' dates and times reset back to January 31, 1999. Press The Buttons (by way of NeoGAF) is speculating that when the system date rolled over to March 1, 2010 at midnight Greenwich Mean Time, it thought it was rolling over to February 29, 2010; when your system tries to determine the local date and time by using a calculation involving a date that doesn't actually exist, things go screwy. The good news is that if this is the case, it will provide a workaround for itself later on today when the system rolls over to a date that exists.
Regardless, I'm going to keep mine turned off until this thing is fixed. And I just bought Heavy Rain, too...
Sony is now officially saying do not use your (old model) PS3 until things are fixed. They say they hope to have it working again in 24 hours, but if it is that date issue, it may not take that long.
Maybe this is why I was randomly disconnected from the PSN while trying to play Madden 10 yesterday. I've never been disconnected since changing routers, so it was very surprising (and very annoying).
I downloaded the God of War demo earlier today (like in the very early morning), and it went fine, but I will still heed the warnings here. So thanks for the word.
"Put on your helmets, we'll be reaching speeds of 3!" "It was nice of you to give that dead woman another chance." "All right, look alive everybody...oh sorry Susan."- MST3K: Space Mutiny Click Here (myspace.com)
It is after midnight GMT, and it sounds like everyone's systems should be working again. That link also has hints on how to possibly restore your Trophy data if you lost it.
Thread ahead: PSP releases: week of March 1st, 2010 Next thread: PS3 releases: week of March 1st, 2010 Previous thread: Xbox 360 releases: week of March 1, 2010