The new PS4 system software update 9.0 has quietly fixed the PS4’s internal clock (CMOS) battery issue that prevented PS4 owners from playing their digital and physical games if their PS4 internal clock battery had died.
First reported by Destruction Games on Twitter, PS4 consoles with a dead CMOS battery can now run physical and digital games without crashing when booting up, and could now even earn trophies on games - although there would be no dates added with the trophies.
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It’s a relief that Sony paid attention to the CMOS issue and fixed it, because the issue could’ve rendered affected PS4s useless. To counteract the CMOS issue rendering physical and digital games unplayable, users would have to connect to the PlayStation Network, but if in the future Sony decided to do away with PSN on PS4, the console would essentially be bricked. Initially, according to Destruction Games, Sony denied that there was an issue with the PS4’s CMOS battery, but thankfully it appears to have done a 180. So, game preservationists rejoice in the fact that they’ve changed Sony’s mind.
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Sony has recently performed a u-turn on some of its anti-game preservation policies. In July, Sony was going to shut down the PS Store on PS3, PSP and PS Vita, but thankfully, it changed its mind allowing PS Store to stay operational on the PS3 and PS Vita. Though it did close down the PS store on PSP, you can still buy PSP games on the Vita and PS3.
Now we can only hope Sony will bring its newfound appreciation for game-preservation to backward compatibility. Sony should be following Microsoft’s lead to bring older generation games on the PS1, PS2 and PS3 to the PS5 and PS4 (if possible), while also enhancing those older games with at least better resolutions.
PS Now only offers a meager solution to backward compatibility, which means you can only stream older PS3 games at their original 720p resolution, and most PS3 games haven’t aged too well- Infamous looks horrendous on PS Now, for example, a backward compatibility system like Xbox’s would definitely be an improvement over PS Now.
But all we can do is hope Sony keeps its attention on game preservation going forward. And, please Sony, start detailing these extra fixes on system updates in the update log, thanks.
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