Unable to connect to EA servers

I have been running around all day for five hours trying to get this game and now when I finally get home and I think that I'm going to be able to relax and race around a little bit the game won't let me play it. I go into the beginning up until it says press x to continue and when I press it, it says connecting to EA Servers and then gives me error 40050000 saying "You need to be signed into EA Servers to access online features of this game. Please check your internet connection." I've checked my internet connection and even spoke to a Sony representative who told me that my internet connection was great but it's still not letting me do anything besides press X continuously just to keep getting the same message over and over again. Any Ideas??? I've really been dying to play this game for a while now