Update 7/22: It appears as though the PlayStation Network services have been restored for the vast majority of PS4 and PS5 users.
Original story follows.
It appears as though the PlayStation Network, Sony's online service for its PS4 and PS5 consoles, is down. The PSN problems appear to be widespread, with thousands of people online claiming to have issues with the service. Sony is aware of the problems with PSN and is likely working on a solution. But until Sony manages to fix the ongoing problems with PSN, players won't be able to use their PS4 or PS5 consoles online.
The services impacted by the current PlayStation Network problems are account management, gaming, PlayStation Now, PlayStation Video, PlayStation Store, and PlayStation Direct. Essentially, this means that one's PlayStation console is useless when it comes to anything that needs online connectivity right now. The problems have been going on for at least 20 minutes or so at the time of this writing, but they will hopefully be fixed sooner rather than later.
This isn't the first time that PSN has gone down, of course. Like any online service, the PlayStation Network occasionally goes down or users lose access to some of its services. Luckily, Sony is usually pretty quick about getting things fixed, so fans shouldn't have to wait too long to jump back online.
There have been some instances where PlayStation Network has been down for prolonged periods of time. The infamous PlayStation Network hack saw the services taken down for a whopping 23 days in 2011. And then a few years later, the Lizard Squad attacks saw Christmas 2014 ruined for anyone wanting to play online games. The Lizard Squad attacks weren't just focused on PlayStation, however, as Xbox's online services were taken down in that instance as well.
It's highly unlikely that this latest PSN outage is due to anything as serious as the Lizard Squad attacks, so users shouldn't have to worry. In fact, there are some online who have reported that their PSN services are already being restored. Others are still having issues, though, so it seems that mileage may vary, but it looks like Sony is getting close to getting PlayStation Network services back up and running like usual.
We will update this post once the PlayStation Network services have been fully restored.