Both the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 (in the latter case, it’s the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition) were previously mentioned that the missing/dry CMOS battery could effectively make offline play impossible. And this is indeed an issue to be addressed as soon as possible…

The PlayStation 4 is entirely useless if it has no working CMOS battery (which is a simple CR2032 battery), so if it runs out or gets removed, and there’s no Internet connection, the PlayStation Network won’t save you. The PlayStation 5 (if it lacks a Blu-ray drive… aka a PS5 Digital Edition) can also provide similarly bad results with no CMOS battery, and we’re not going into details here.

The players wrote a template that is aimed at Sony: „The issue was first brought to my attention by the team at @DoestItPlay1 on Twitter and relates to the internal timekeeping battery, colloquially referred to as the CMOS battery. It has been discovered that once the battery runs dry then unless the console can connect to the internet then digital content purchased from the PlayStation Store will stop functioning. In the case of the PlayStation 4, the console will also be rendered unable to boot physical discs.

I ask that Sony issue a firmware patch to fix the identified issue and make a commitment to their customers, for the sake of future generations and the environment, that they will ensure that continued operation of their consoles and hardware will not be hindered by mandatory online updates or check-ins,” the template says. The last sentence is also present on PC: guess what Denuvo does: mandatory online connections to do check-ins…

However, Does It Play (who previously brought attention to the CMOS issue) announced on Twitter that they heard from several internal sources (as well as users who got replies from Sony) claiming that the company’s PR team wants to get on top of the issue, dealing with it ASAP. Let’s hope we’ll hear positive news shortly then…

Source: WCCFTech