Digital games on PS3 and Vita are reportedly "expiring" and becoming unplayable

Classic PlayStation games like Chrono Cross are seemingly "expiring" on PS3 and PlayStation Vita, even for players who had legitimately bought the games through Sony's own storefronts.

As reported by Kotaku, PlayStations users have taken to social media on discovering that the hitherto unknown "expiration dates" on their digital games have reportedly expired.

When trying to re-download the classic version of Chrono Cross, one user reports he received a noticed telling him that his licence to play the game had expired on 31st December, 1969.

Similarly, another player was given the same message when trying to access Chrono Cross on PS3.

So did @PlayStation expire the PSOne Classics versions of #ChronoCross and #ChronoTrigger by setting the date on new downloads to 12/31/1969? This is preventing me from playing my purchased copies on Vita and PS3. @ModernVintageG @dark1x pic.twitter.com/wxRebNIZWh

Though at first, some cynical souls thought this was a sneaky ploy to funnel players into trying out the new Chrono Cross remaster, similar issues have seemingly popped up for players trying to access their copies of Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6, Final Fantasy Origins, War of the Lions, and Rune Factory: Oceans. One Vita user even reports that their entire digital catalogue is inaccessible.

As yet, there's been no formal word yet on why the error has occurred, nor any solutions to fix it, although some Vita owners have had limited success "refreshing" their PS Plus subscriptions by purchasing an additional month. We'll up you as and when Sony comments on the matter.

Digital Foundry has more bad news for Chrono Cross fans, I'm afraid, as the remaster seems to "runs worse on PS5 than the original on PS1".

"If you don't have the original Chrono Cross to hand, then the remaster still has some value," Thomas opined in his overview. "If you pick up the Switch release, playing in handheld mode drops the resolution to 720p, bringing the 2D and 3D elements closer together in presentation. And regardless of platform, the story, gameplay and atmosphere of Squaresoft's classic JRPG still resonate in 2022 - despite some of the technical and artistic limitations.

"Ultimately then, this remaster is something of a disappointment. Chrono Cross is an undoubted cult classic, but the Radical Dreamers Edition underperforms in terms of both visuals and performance. While some issues might be able to be fixed post-launch, the challenges here should prompt questions at Square Enix as to the validity of their approach to porting PlayStation classics."

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