Connection is Required error when logging in on PlayStation

I’m sorry to see someone else is having this problem, but at least we both know we aren’t alone!

I played around with it a bit before coming to work this morning, and an error message popped up in the right corner of the main menu so quickly you’d miss it if you blink. Took me three times loading the game to get a screen grab. It reads "Ea app authentication failed. Please log in to EA app to enable online features." (see attached screen grab) It’s acting as though I am not connected to the network, and certainly looks that way too on the main menu, but I can still access the gallery and the game sees me as being connected. If I load into a save and then go back to the main menu, I see the sidebar ads and info and the fancy new background. If I reset settings at that point, they will stick throughout my play session, even if I change save files.

At some point between starting the game and the main menu loading, a connection to something is being lost and then regained. About one time out of ten, everything loads normally and I see the full screen ad for the new preorder and the main menu looks as it should, but I will still need to reset all settings, as they just are not sticking at all. It feels like there are two problems happening. One being the network connection weirdness and one being the settings resetting. I’ve played without internet in the past and didn’t have problems with settings not sticking. I wouldn’t think settings would need a network connection, but who knows these days.

What I have tried is restoring my license for Sims 4, resetting and clearing the cache on my PS5, and using different household WiFi networks. None of this made any difference at all. Game still takes forever to load, main menu still behaves as though it lacks network connection though it’s connected, and settings much be reset. It’s all very frustrating.