PlayStation Network Down for Maintenance Today, Might Return with PS Store [UPDATED]

UPDATE: Sony confirmed that the planned maintenance is also happening in North America, from about 8am until approximately 5pm Pacific time. 

Sony has just confirmed, through an announcement for its Irish PlayStation Network users, that the online service is going down for scheduled maintenance later today and that it will be brought back shortly after midnight.

Sony went through some serious problems with its PlayStation Network online service, as after a hacker attack, the company took it down in order to rebuild it in a more secure fashion, bringing some part of it back online last week.

Now, it seems that the PSN is going to be taken offline once more, at least in Ireland, as Sony confirmed that the service will be down for scheduled maintenance, via CVG.

"PlayStation Network is offline for scheduled maintenance from 16:00 on Tuesday 24 May 2011 until 00:01 on Wednesday 25 May 2011, GMT," Sony said.

If you wish to play online during this maintenance period, then players need to sign into the PSN before 16:00 and stay signed in when playing their own games.

"During this maintenance, you can continue to collect in-game trophies and these will be updated on your profile once PlayStation Network is back up and running," Sony added.

According to rumors on the web, this scheduled maintenance may finally bring back the PlayStation Store, which still wasn't available to players since before the PSN was taken down due to the hacker attack.

Previous, confidential statements made by Sony to developers said that the PlayStation Store would be back around today, so the scheduled maintenance is almost certain to return after the end of the offline period.

If the PlayStation Store is going to return, Sony promised that it will make several updates each week, in order to please players that were left without any sort of new games or content for more than four weeks.

Sony is also scheduled to start offering its "make good" promotion, where existing PSN owners can get two free games, out of a choice of four, for the PS3 and PSP, respectively.

Expect more details later today or early tomorrow.