PlayStation Network, many PS3s are currently down; possibly date-related issue

The online PlayStation Network has been down last night, bringing some Sony PlayStation3 consoles with it and causing a lot of owners out there to be very frustrated.

According to The Guardian, PS3 users trying to access the online gaming service have been getting this message repeatedly for the last several hours: "An error has occurred. You have been signed out of PlayStation Network (8001050F)."

Gamers have been writing in on the PS3 forums about different issues here and there, namely not being able to log in and losing saved games. However, apparently PS3 Slim owners appear to be are safe from the problem.

Sony is still working on correcting the problem, and you can check for updates on their Twitter account.

The cause for the breakdown hasn't been clarified yet, but some tech blogs are pointing to the fact that it could be because of the switch from February 28 to March, 1 as PSN has been known to be finicky when it comes to even-numbered years. Maybe PSN still thinks that just because there's an Olympic broadcast, it must be a leap year.

Anyone out there been affected by this?

(And also related to that date issue, a big happy birthday to anyone born on February 29, since I'm not really sure how or when you celebrate that this year.)