PS3: More of an issue than meets the eye?

If I asked you today's date, what would you tell me? February 28th, 2010, right? Well, what if I asked my Playstation 3? If you check your system time, and you have a "fat PS3", the answer would be "December 31st, 1999."

So far, I have contacted 6 people I know who own a PS3. Three have "fat" models, and three have slims. As you would guess, all of the slims work just fine, including internet and online play. The fats (myself included) are all experiencing the same issues.

"What exactly isn't working?" Let me tell you.

Games purchased on PSN, per all of my sources, are not working, whether you're playing online or offline. Trophies are not loading for many customers. The "1999" time setback is extremely odd, indeed. I have also seen reports of videos uploaded to the PS3 not playing, whether purchased from PSN or uploaded manually from a memory stick or hard drive.

To get more of a definite, clear-cut answer, I contacted SCEA customer service directly, as well as a friend of mine. The representative answered the phone as expected, and we received about the same amount of information. I was told "We're working on it", and the rep immediately hung up on me, giving me no time to ask questions. My friend however, was hung up on as soon as he mentioned that he had an older "fat" model.

While reporting this, I got a call from another Playstation 3 owner. He owns a fat system, and his is having the same issues. What makes his situation significant enough to warrant his own paragraph? He has not connected to the network in about 5-6 months, as he does not have internet.

This leads me to believe that the ball was dropped during production of these systems. Something is really fishy about the fat PS3's and the date changing back to a time when Sony was preparing for the launch of the Playstation 2.

So what is really wrong? Why have all the "overweight" PS3's entered this time warp, back to a time before their very inception? Other than a brief twitter and a slew of clueless, careless customer service representatives, there is nothing to report. But an explanation as to why an offline game cannot be played, on a system which hasn't connected to the internet in half a year, is certainly owed, and fast. HookedGamers will, as always, be all over this one. Stay tuned.