A doomsday scenario has struck PS3 owners worldwide, as consoles are reportedly locking players out of both online and offline play. No one (Sony included) seems to know the cause, but it's certainly a reason to give players concern a mere two weeks before Sony's biggest release of 2010: "God of War 3."
The issue is far-reaching and is even affecting consoles that aren't connected to the internet. UK site Develop is reporting that debug consoles, used for game development, have also been stricken down and made worthless by this strange bug.
Currently Sony is "working to restore service," and has said that newer consoles, like the PS3 Slim, are unaffected. Unfortunately, I don't think people with Slims are online searching about massive PS3 errors.
Hopefully we'll see an update regarding the fix later today. Stay tuned.