PS4 clock battery death will kill your console’s ability to play games

According to a recent tweet, if your PlayStation 4’s clock battery dies you will be unable to play games on the console regardless of whether the games are digital copies or on disc.

everyone worrying about a non existent Denuvo problem when what they should be worrying about is

ERROR CE 34878-0

when the ps4 cmos battery dies (and it will) it renders all ps4 digital files unusable without a server reconnection and in ps4 it also kills disc playback pic.twitter.com/0TYE2rOeBC

— Does it play? (@DoesItPlay1) March 10, 2021

Lance McDonald, a trusted hacker, mentioned in a reply to that tweet (shown below) that this is due to the trophies on the PS4 of the respective games which requires the consoles’ internal clock to work correctly. Moreover, the main aim of this was to prevent users from changing the date and time values and exploiting the PS4’s trophy system.

This error is because Trophies on PS4 require the internal system clock (the one you can’t see / alter) to be correct, so people cant change their PS4 date/time to make it look like they got trophies earlier than they really did. If your PS4 clock battery dies, all your games die https://t.co/8y9aZzL9vC

— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) March 23, 2021

Although the CMOS of the console can be replaced very easily if Sony decides to shut down its PS4 servers after a few years then this clock battery death may be a concern for existing PS4 users.

As of now, Sony is soon going to shut down online store services for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita. In a nutshell, if you own either a PS3, PSP, or PS Vita you will not be able to download and purchase new games and DLCs.

With the PS4 being a major success currently, it is highly unlikely that Sony will shut down services for the PS4 so soon. It is expected that the PS4 and the PS4 Pro will have a long life cycle, so in short, users can rest easy in regards to the clock battery death.