EA Sports WRC Crashing on Start-Up Today, Feb. 29, Because 2024’s a Leap Year
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EA has joined Square Enix in failing to see the leap year coming, as just like Theatrhythm Final Fantasy on Nintendo Switch, EA Sports WRC isn’t working because it’s February 29.
Fans of the rally racer took to social media to complain about the game crashing upon launch today, and EA soon published a statement explaining it was looking into it. “We are aware of an issue on console in which the game may crash on startup,” it said on X/Twitter. “This is currently being investigated and will be fixed as soon as possible.”
Guidance for PlayStation players:
1⃣ On your console, go to Settings > System > Date and Time > Set Date and Time > Set Manually.
2⃣ Change the date to March 1, 2024.
3⃣ Once this change has been done, the game should function normally.
— EA Help (@EAHelp) February 29, 2024
The fix isn’t complicated despite involving a little bit of time travel, as EA returned soon after telling players to change their hardware to March 1. This isn’t just an in-game solution, however, as players have to change their entire console’s date in the system settings.
Not including functionality to have a game work on February 29, which of course arrives every four years, may seem a tad ridiculous, but EA Sports WRC developer Codemasters isn’t the only studio to make the mistake.
Fans also flagged that rhythm Final Fantasy spin-off Theatrhythm Final Fantasy remained on an infinite loading screen until system settings were changed away from the date. Time will tell if another studio makes the same blunder.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
