The online services of Sony's PlayStation consoles went down for several hours on Tuesday, the Japanese firm said, affecting gamers around the world.

The conglomerate apologised in a social media post without providing a reason for the outage. Service returned to normal around midday Tuesday European time.

PlayStation's online services allow owners of consoles such as the PS4 and PS5 to play games such as "Fortnite" or "Call of Duty".

Without online services, players cannot play with other users remotely nor can they buy or download titles from the PlayStation Store.

"At this time, the PlayStation Network (including PlayStation Store) may not be available," said PlayStation's technical support on the social media site X.

"We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused."

The site later said services had returned to normal.