A Y2K-style bug stopped owners of older PlayStation 3 consoles from accessing Sony’s online games network.

The fault, now fixed, affected older machines – 23 million are reported to be in circulation - and not the newer slimline models.

The bug is believed to have kicked in when the date switched from February 28 to March 1 – the older machines are believed to have recognised 2010 as a leap year.

As a result, the date on some machines was reset to January 1, 2000. Some machines were unable to log on to the PlayStation network while others received a variety of error messages.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe advised owners of older PS3 machines not to use them until the bug was fixed because it could result in data loss and cause problems with the machine’s ability to function.