Sony has scheduled maintenance planned for this Thursday, beginning in the afternoon and lasting for 12 hours – well into most people’s gaming time. During the maintenance window, the PSN and other related services will be offline, but you will be able to continue to play online if you sign-on before maintenance begins.
The maintenance will start at approximately 4.00pm GMT and last until around 4.00am GMT on 18th January. During the maintenance period, you may receive a maintenance notification when attempting to access PSN.