Consume preferably before: see certificate
We all thought that the digital format was the future. Why have a disc or a physical cartridge when you can have your video game on a server and download it to your console only when you want to play it? However, if Sony or Nintendo had warned us that once the useful life of the console expires, we will lose the right to download our purchase, we probably would never have jumped through that hoop. We would continue to buy physical games, thus ensuring that our titles stay with us.
The story comes from afar. Last year, Sony announced that would close its PS3, PS Vita and PSP stores. Gamers took out their torches, and Sony decided to relax and just lock down the PSP digital store. However, a year later, there are users who claim that they can’t play some of their classic games purchased for PlayStation 3 and PS Vita. One of those games is Chrono Crosswhich curiously, will receive a remaster for PlayStation 5 in a few days. Is this a Machiavellian move by Sony to sell the game?
Well, although the company has not yet ruled, everything indicates that it is mere chance And it’s not the first time something like this has happened. According to Kotaku, the problem comes from the programming per se. Years ago, engineers working with Unix had to put a certificate expiration date that they used for game licenses. Since there was no standard, the programmers themselves invented distant dates. In the 90s, 2022 was quite a long way off, so it didn’t seem like a problem. However, when porting the game to modern consoles, those certificates don’t appear to have changed.
Once again, the preservation of the video game is once again in danger. This episode shows us that, at the present time, there are still obstacles for us to keep our own titles, so it is Sony itself that is giving a voice to those users who defend piracy only because it is the only possibility that exists of preserve intellectual property.
It’s not the first time that something like this happens
Not only Sony has fallen into this error. Much more serious was the blunder of Microsoft with Windows XP. Last year practically the same thing happened with the famous Redmond operating system. The reason? The operating system’s SSL certificates had an expiration date, and no one came up with a way to update them.
For the same reason, thousands of old computers that still use that system, They stopped having access to the website as of September 30, 2021.
