And In PS3 News...

People across the globe are waking up to find that their PlayStation 3 consoles are plagued with error message "8001050F – Hardware failure. Cannot update Firmware or connect to Internet".

As the console calenders changed from the end of February to the first of March, the calender on the original consoles was reset back to either 1st January 2000 or 31st December 1999,  in turn blocking users from both accessing online content and playing games. Users are reporting that they are unable to access PSN; load games with Trophies or play PS3 'Originals' or 'Premium Themes'; also all Trophy achievements have been erased.

It has been suggested that the error code 8001050F, may be a firmware error relating to a leap year miscalculation, as this error is also affecting offline consoles.

Those with the slim-line consoles should not worry; as of yet there have been no reports of this error affecting them.

In a recent statement Sony said

"We are currently looking in to the issue to identify the cause of this network connection failure and will update further information as necessary on the PlayStation blog and official website. We appreciate your understanding and continued support."

Though Sony have advised users that they will still be able to play games in offline mode; for gaming and other tasks that do not require internet access; some gaming websites have warned users not to turn their consoles on until the error has been fixed.

Phew *sigh of relief* and to think I wanted to get myself an original PS3...