By Michael MacDougall
Staff Writter

On March 1, 2010, disaster struck PS3 owners across the planet. Suddenly, they were unable to play some of their games. What happened and why? How did Sony miss something this large, and not stop it before it started? What will PS3 owners do now that they can’t play their beloved games? The answers to these questions, and more, can be found on Sony’s press release, which was publicized just hours after the initial outbreak.

The first question everyone asks is “What happened?” Well, every first generation Playstation 3 had a corrupted code that made their consoles unable to play games enabled with the trophy system. Older games such as Medal Gear Solid 4 or Rachet and Clank: Future: Tools of Destruction worked fine. But newer games, suck as Rock Band: Beatles, would not initialize. People got this problem just by booting up their console. No one with the older model PS3 was unaffected, not even people who were not connected to the Internet. People with the newer, slim model PS3, however, escaped unharmed.

The next thing people ask is “How did it happen?” Well, it happened when Sony mislabeled 2010 as a leap year. So, on the console’s internal clocks, March 1 was supposed to be February 29. With those date discrepancies, the anti-cheating software kicked in. Basically, the consoles thought the users were cheating for their trophies by changing the date, and made it so the users couldn’t get any trophies the easiest way possible — make those games unplayable for everyone. For whatever reason, the new slim models did not have the corrupted code.

The final question is “What is Sony doing about it?” They released a patch that should have fixed every problem almost instantly, however some older model PS3 with Internet connection didn’t start working again for a few more days. Sony has also released, for free, clothing for the PS3 Home’s avatar characters that relate to what is being referred to as “The Meltdown.”

Well, even with disaster averted, what other problems will arise? If Sony lets something as simple as mislabeled date get through the cracks, what will happen next? Is the future of the PS3’s reliability in jeopardy? Only time will tell.

Xbox has also experienced the ring of death for several of their systems. However, they are quickly repared and sent back to the customer.

This tragedy to all game lovers and addicts poses a destruction to life as they know it. To many, video games are their best friend. Melt downs and rings of death are only the beginning for their world falling apart.

Don’t worry too much, though, Sony and Microsoft always take care of their customers. The wait to get back into the game may take a while but your system will be good as new.