This PlayStation Bug Will Lock You Out of Your Digital Games

Sony is fixing users' accounts, but it's still a big pain.

Some gamers prefer to buy hard copies of their games, while others are fine with digital downloads. Sony even makes a digital-only version of the PS5, just in case you fall into the latter camp. However, if you're someone who buys a lot of content digitally, or has a large collection of PS+ games you've claimed, you'll want to watch out for a bug that could prevent you from playing most of them.

Last week, Reddit user dSuds2342 shared a PSA on r/playstation, warning users about a catastrophic bug that could lock you out of the vast majority of the digital games in your purchase history. If you fall victim, you'll reportedly be able to see these titles in your transaction history, but not in your Purchased menu. If you try to download affected games to your console, you may be asked to buy them again, or add then again from PS+—but when you try to, it will claim you already own the game. Affected games that exist on your console already will appear with a padlock icon.

According to this Redditor, they triggered the weird PlayStation bug by trying to launch Helldivers II, which resulted in an error message (specifically, error message CE-117773-6). When they googled what to do, they found that they should select the Restore Licenses option, which is the option that can help users access locked titles on their console. But choosing this option is what the Redditor believes locked them out of their purchases: Because the items were not properly associated with their user account, Restore Licenses severed the connection with any titles purchased before the bug impacted the console, rendering any further action useless.

At the time of this writing, there were at least 50 other known users affected by this issue, but it's possible there have been more. In this same thread, one user claims they lost access to over 400 games after using the Restore License option following a CE-117773-6 error message when booting up Elden Ring. Another user says they lost over 700 games.

What to do if you're locked out of your PS5 games

Last week, Sony appeared slow to help fix the problem. However, the company has since reportedly begun to fix some affected users' accounts, with users being told their access will be restored within between three, four, or 10 days. Redditor ArkJK, after asking for compensation for wasting a month of their PS+ subscription, received a free month of the service as a "gesture of good will." So, at this time, the best thing to do if you see that error message when trying to access a game is to contact PlayStation support and hope they offer you a speedy triage.

Speaking of which, one interesting hack that seems to have some success, at least for restoring PS+ downloads, is to subscribe to another month of PS+. Giving more money to a company that is holding your digital purchases hostage might seem like the last thing you'd want to do, but some users, including the OP quoted in this post, were finally able to play their previously claimed PS+ games after subscribing for another month.