At least, that’s the latest from Does It Play, a Twitter account dedicated to game accessibility and preservation. As far as they can tell, when the system’s internal CMOS battery dies, the PS5 will be able to play PS4 and some PS5 discs, though digital titles will be inaccessible.

News about game preservation for PlayStation consoles has been pretty dire in the last few months. After Sony announced that it would be closing the stores for the PS3 and PSP in July and the PS Vita in August, users began discovering that the PS3, PS Vita, and PS4’s DRM was linked to the systems’ CMOS battery (which, among other things, remembers the time) and server verification.

All CMOS batteries will eventually die (and can be replaced). In most consoles, that will just mean the system will prompt you to set the time whenever you turn the system on. The PS3, PS4 and PS Vita, however, rely on the console’s digital clock to verify whether the user has the right to access digital content. If the battery is dead, the console will connect to the PSN servers to verify the time, and games should work fine. If the console can’t connect to the PSN servers, however, and the battery is dead or has never connected to PSN before, the console will be unable to verify that the user has the right to play the games. In the case of the PS3, this means that users will be unable to play downloaded games. In the PS4’s case, it will even stop the console from playing physical discs. Allegedly, this is because the system’s clock is tied to maintaining the integrity of Trophies.

On either console, it means that users could lose access to their games if Sony ever shuts down PSN. It has come to be referred to as C-Bomb because unless Sony does something, it’s only a matter of time before this starts affecting every  Vita, PS3 and PS4.

Does It Play recently tested whether this issue affects the PS5 by removing the system’s CMOS battery and disconnecting the console from PSN. Like the PS3, removing the CMOS battery means the PS5 can no longer play digital games. However, unlike the PS4, it looks like the console will still boot physical PS4 games.

According to Video Games Chronicle, PS5 game results were more mixed. Mortal Kombat 11 would repeatedly crash during installation, but Spider-Man: Miles Morales would boot and play fine. Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War would boot, but since the game relies on being connected to its servers, it was largely unplayable.

“Our tests are continuing, but we are alarmed at the fact that Mortal Kombat 11 failed to install and we will be checking a variety of other games to see if other discs encounter the same issue,” Does It Play said.

Does It Play also noted that they only have access to one PS5 console, and until they could replicate the results on more PS5s, what they found wasn’t conclusive. They also stated that losing access to digital games would be the biggest issue for people who own the PS5 digital edition.

It’s thought that Sony could fix any C-Bomb issues with firmware updates, but so far, that hasn’t happened.

What happens in the future when the CMOS battery in your console dies and the servers are unreachable? We fear it could have serious implications for software preservation.

We need to gather data to confirm our theory and you can help.#cbomb #cmoshttps://t.co/uys1xnzuJr

— Does it play? (@DoesItPlay1) March 26, 2021

It’s been a tumultuous year for Daybreak Game Company, formerly Sony Online Entertainment of PlanetSide 2 and H1Z1 fame. After the company became independent from Sony, it was the victim of attacks by hacking group Lizard Squad. Following the two year sentence of Julius Kivimaki and harassment from the group, Smedley threatened to personally sue (which only led to more attacks on Daybreak titles).

Now it’s been announced that Smedley is stepping down as CEO of the company. According to VentureBeat, chief operating officer Russell Shanks will act as president and work with a committee to oversee the company’s working.

A Daybreak representative further stated that, “John Smedley will be taking some time off from the company for the near-term and transitioning to a different role to be determined. Upon finalization of his plans, further communication will be provided.”

Smedley himself has not commented on his role in the future or the exact reason for his departure. Could it be related to Lizard Squad or simply the need for a break? Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

Three months ago, Sony Online Entertainment parted ways with the rest of Sony, as they were sold off to an independent investment firm. Sony Online Entertainment at that point expressed eager enthusiasm to work on bringing their games to Xbox, in addition to PlayStation and PC.

It turns out that this desire wasn’t just because of the excitement of tinkering with new technology, or a wish to see their games exposed to a wider audience- in strictly financial terms, Daybreak estimates it will see its revenues spike once its games are available on Xbox. It estimates that the revenue raise may be as much as 50%.

“If you just take the numbers that the console publishers themselves have put out, you are talking about a 50 percent revenue lift,” company president John Smedley said in an interview on U-T San Diego.

He may not be wrong- games like Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (PS3, PS4) and Neverwinter (Xbox One) have shown us that MMORPGs do have an audience on consoles as well, and MMO style games is what Daybreak is known for. Whether or not the company can tap into this audience remains to be seen- as of right now, though, this remains to be seen.

Stay tuned.

With the shocking news that Sony had sold off one of its studios, Sony Online Entertainment, to Columbus Nova, and that the studio will now be making all of its games available on multiple platforms, there are, of course, a few people wondering what SOE (now known as Daybreak Game Company) might think about approaching Xbox One game development.

In the words of their president John Smedley – they are ‘beyond excited.’ “Can’t wait to make Xbox One games!” Smedley said, before adding, “We’re beyond excited!” The multiple exclamation points should make it clear that he is, in fact, pretty excited at the prospect of making Xbox One video games.

Whether these just include future games from them going forward, such as H1Z1 or Planetside 2, or whether this means that existing games, such as DC Universe Online, may also be coming to Xbox eventually, remains to be seen. Whatever happens, though, we will keep you posted.

Sony’s Sony Online Entertainment- an historic developer with titles and franchises such as Planetside, Everquest, and more recently, H1Z1 under its belt- has been sold off to Columbus Nova, a well known and massive investment management firm. Sony Online Entertainment will now be called Daybreak Game Company, and they confirmed that they will be making their games for multiple formats- including mobiles and yes, Xbox One.

“Today, we are pleased to announce that we have been acquired by Columbus Nova, an investment management firm well known for its success with its existing portfolio of technology, media and entertainment focused companies. This means that effective immediately SOE will operate as an independent game development studio where we will continue to focus on creating exceptional online games for players around the world, and now as a multi-platform gaming company. Yes, that means PlayStation and Xbox, mobile and more,” they said, to make it very clear.

It’s a little baffling as to why this sale was made- while SOE has always been a bit of an odd anomaly in Sony’s lineup of studios, existing in its own bubble and never even supporting Sony’s own hardware, that had begun to change in recent months, as SOE was beginning to become more and more integrated with Sony WWS, and was starting to bring its games over to PS4. With SOE’s games confirmed for Xbox One as well, the PS4 just lost a bunch of valuable exclusives.

Stay tuned, and we will keep you posted on all developments.

Sony Online Entertainment’s persistent zombie survival MMO, H1Z1, may be much maligned, but it has a thriving and growing player base, that the developer probably wants to maintain at all costs. To make sure that cheaters do not wreck the nascent game for everybody else, SOE’s Jimmy Whisenhunt confirmed that the developer is ‘at war’ with known cheaters, handing them permabans.

In response to the concern that the cheaters just make new accounts to jump right in, Whisenhunt confirmed that alt accounts are banned as well, and that since you need to pay money to register a new account, this is basically ‘free money’ for SOE.

“Dear #H1Z1 cheaters: Sorry some of you suddenly can’t play anymore, your donation and tears are greatly appreciated. More bans inc,” he said, to be specific.

Yikes. Looks like they feel pretty strongly about this whole cheating thing.

Then again, why in the world would you play an online game and cheat? What is the point, I mean, what do you actually get from that?

All this talk about Early Access, of course, brings us to H1Z1, an open world zombie survival game. You’ll begin your time in H1Z1 by picking a server and creating a name for your character. After that, you’ll spawn in a random slice of rural North America with little more than the clothes on your back. From there, your goal is simple: survive the apocalypse by scavenging food, water, and equipment while simultaneously avoiding the zombies that litter the ruined landscape and surviving the other human players, many of whom will kill you as soon as look at you (unless you’re on a PVE server; then, they’ll just ignore you).

It’s a struggle for survival, and the objective is simple: stay alive however you can, for as long as you can. Got it? Good. Now, you’d better get moving, because you’ve got about half a day (or two hours in-game) before you die from starvation and/or dehydration.

"If there is one feature that sets H1Z1 apart from DayZ, it’s the ability to craft items, weapons, and even structures. How you do this isn’t always obvious – one of the best strategies early on is to take off your shirt, rip it into pieces, and combine it with wood to build a bow – but it does add an element of personality to the game."

If this sounds – okay, scratch the “if.” H1Z1 is basically a clone of Bohemia Interactive’s DayZ. I’m not usually one for criticism by comparison, but the similarities here are incredibly hard to ignore. You’re going to die. In fact, you’re going to die a lot, especially early, as you learn the game’s systems and form the habits that will get you further and further each time.

Like DayZ, the game itself changes drastically every time you die. On my first life, I found a gun (but no ammo), a hammer, and a crowbar, and thought I was doing fairly well, until I realized I couldn’t find any food. I tried beating a deer to death with the crowbar, but… well, you know how it is. The second time around, I found a ton of ammo (but no gun, natch) and food, and even a car. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any water, and my car ended up flipping over after I picked up another player, who promptly abandoned me, and I died of dehydration, alone, in the middle of a forest. Fun times.

If there is one feature that sets H1Z1 apart from DayZ, it’s the ability to craft items, weapons, and even structures. How you do this isn’t always obvious – one of the best strategies early on is to take off your shirt, rip it into pieces, and combine it with wood to build a bow – but it does add an element of personality to the game. Building your own structures, and carving out a home, is a pretty neat feature, even if you do have to use a wiki to figure out what materials build what. That said, it’s definitely not easy, and it requires many materials and often a specialized item or two before you can really take a crack at it.

"Your success is very much dependent on where in the world you spawn and what’s around you, and the game is set up so that, more often than not, you will fail. As a result, the promise of easy loot is pretty tempting."

The other thing that H1Z1 offers is air drops. Essentially, air drops allow players to purchase a crate of randomly generated supplies that are dropped into the game, usually near the player’s location. This has caused some backlash in the community, because SOE president John Smedley previously stated that players would not be able to purchase important items in-game.

In and of themselves, the air drops are not an issue, but they become one because of how the game is designed. Because resources are so scarce, and many of the items required to obtain certain materials or build specific things are very rare, H1Z1 seems like a game designed to part you with your money. Your success is very much dependent on where in the world you spawn and what’s around you, and the game is set up so that, more often than not, you will fail. As a result, the promise of easy loot is pretty tempting.

That said, there’s no point in spending your money on H1Z1 at this point because, unique building mechanics aside, the game just isn’t very good. Playing it is just unsatisfying, and most of what you do just isn’t interesting. Searching for supplies essentially boils down to pressing “E” and watching a timer count down as your character rummages through cupboards or as you watch a physical item (a water bottle, ammo, weapons, etc) magically vanish into your inventory. Combat isn’t much better. Ranged scuffles have some pop to them, but melee battles feel more like Skyrim – ie, you slap each other around with what feels like a wiffle bat, with little feedback of any kind, until someone falls to the ground and spasms around for a few seconds as they try to avoid clipping through the ground.

"H1Z1 doesn’t look particularly good, either. Sure, it can look nice when the sun hits everything at the right angle, usually at sunset, and the scale of the world is legitimately impressive, but beyond that? This game is ugly, man. Some of these textures wouldn’t fly on the N64, let alone modern PCs."

Worse yet, the game’s inventory, which measures how much you can carry with a numbered capacity, isn’t intuitive and is clunky to navigate, and the actual survival mechanics are pretty barebones, focusing mostly on stamina, hunger, thirst, and overall health. Sure, there are multivitamins and antibiotics scattered around the game world, but its borderline impossible to get sick, and even harder to end up with a physical injury worse than minor bleeding. From fights with zombies to car crashes, everything I’ve had to deal with has been something I could walk away from with little more than a bandage and a can of beans.

H1Z1 doesn’t look particularly good, either. Sure, it can look nice when the sun hits everything at the right angle, usually at sunset, and the scale of the world is legitimately impressive, but beyond that? This game is ugly, man. Some of these textures wouldn’t fly on the N64, let alone modern PCs. Animations are jerky, the forests are lifeless and bland, and the buildings are cookie-cutter with many of the same furnishings. Even the rain looks terrible. Now, you might argue that all of this will change because this is an Early Access game, and there’s some merit to that. But putting the graphical issues aside, this game has no soul. It’s bland old undead America, all over again, and it’s not like that’s in short supply these days.

Right now, H1Z1 is the picture of a rough Early Access game in the first throes of life. To succeed in the long term, however, it’s going to need to be more than just another game that’s riding the wave of DayZ’s success. It needs to be unique, and fun, and different, and right now, with very few exceptions, it isn’t any of those things. Right now, it’s just another game asking you to pay for the privilege of beta testing, and on top of that, it has the gall to design its systems around microtransactions so, you know, you can pay more for an uninspired, unfinished game that isn’t very good. And in a world oversaturated with zombies, that just isn’t enough.

This game was previewed on the PC.

Last week, the Planetside community issued a call to arms to organize the largest FPS battle ever. It wasn’t out of any real hatred – rather, the community was attempting to have Planetside 2 break the Guinness World Record for “Most Players Online in an FPS Battle”, a record previously held by Man vs. Machine.

Amazingly enough, Planetside Battles’ event managed to accomplish this feat, having 1158 players online simultaneously (Man vs. Machine set the record with 999 players) and earning developer Sony Online Entertainment the award. You can head here and see Planetside 2 producer David Carey with the award.

Meanwhile, Planetside 2 is in closed beta testing for the PlayStation 4 after several delays and might be out for the console by this Summer. Will we see even more multi-man battles on the PlayStation 4? Stay tuned for more information and updates on the same in the coming months to find out. Also, let us know what you think of this news in the comments.

Sony Online Entertainment’s online zombie sandbox title H1Z1 has faced its fair share of problems since launch. Along with the controversy surrounding airdrops and “pay to win” elements, the game has faced several connectivity issues.

Recently, servers for the game went offline following a “new bug” that slipped through after a new patch went live. SOE president John Smedley apologized for the same on Twitter, stating that, “Looks like a bug slipped in we are fixing fast. Coming down briefly.”

Smedley also clarified that the team is working to resolve the new problems now. “Still working on 2 issues. Sorry for the extended downtime. Kind of issues that must be solved and not just go back to last patch.”

Server queues for game could last more than an hour and there are issues with the frame rate and connectivity. Europe will be seeing more servers soon for what it’s worth. What are your thoughts on the H1Z1 issues? Let us know in the comments.

Following the entirely justified outrage from gamers following the blatant pay to win inclusions in H1Z1, Sony president John Smedley has been updating fans by way of Twitter and Reddit, talking about some of the games outstanding problems.

The game, like most games of its kind, is being plagued by hackers. Smedley had this to say about it, “This is a situation we are extremely on top of. When we first launch we get a good survey of what people want to do.. we watch them do it, then we ban them into the nether world of scumbaggery they belong in. You’ll be seeing us ban and shut down the few things we see on a regular and very rapid response basis.”

Players experiencing the G29 errors that are crippling their gameplay sessions are being aided following a series of fixes. Smedley has said, “We’ve fixed all but about 1% of the G29 errors now”. If you’re still experiencing problems you should email, h1z1g29@soe.sony.com for support. According to him, “The error has something to do with the link between your Steam and your SOE Station account for H1Z1”.

Over the weekend, he also pointed out what will be coming in the games next patch, saying “Hunger and Thirst will be dealt with in the next patch. We think it’s too harsh too. Just trying not to overcompensate. We want it hard.”

Source: Reddit, Twitter.