By Mike Harradence
PlayStation 3 systems worldwide have been crippled by a pesky bug that prevents users from signing in to PSN, as well as rendering some titles completely unplayable.

First up, it should be pointed out that the bug seems to be limited to the ‘fat’ PS3 models, and doesn’t appear to have affected the new Slim designs. Rumors are circulating that the bug was caused by a calendar error, which kicked in as soon as March 1 rolled around.

According to reports, users who have booted up their machines have been unable to check their accounts, sign in to PSN and check Trophies. Furthermore, certain games – notably Heavy Rain – cease to function entirely, with the title displaying an error messages which reboots the console once the message has been closed.

Sony has since issued the following message in response to the error:
“We're aware that many of you are having difficulty connecting to the PlayStation Network this evening. Those of you with "slim" PS3s (the 120/250 GB models) appear to be unaffected."

"Know that we have narrowed down the issue and have engineers working to restore service even as you read this. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you, and genuinely appreciate your patience while we work to resolve this."

UPDATE: Patrick Seybold, Senior Director of Corporate Communication and Social Media, has posted additional information regarding the issue on the Playstation Blog.

"We believe we have identified that this problem is being caused by a bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system," writes Seybold. "We hope to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours. In the meantime, if you have a model other than the new slim PS3, we advise that you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data."

The official list of errors is as follows:
-The date of the PS3 system may be re-set to Jan 1, 2000.
-When the user tries to sign in to the PlayStation Network, the following
message appears on the screen; “An error has occurred. You have been
signed out of PlayStation Network (8001050F)”.
-When the user tries to launch a game, the following error message appears
on the screen and the trophy data may disappear; “Failed to install
trophies. Please exit your game.”
-When the user tries to set the time and date of the system via the
Internet, the following message appears on the screen; “The current date
and time could not be obtained. (8001050F)”
-Users are not able to play back certain rental video downloaded from the
PlayStation Store before the expiration date.