Sony has announced that in Europe (with other territories surely to follow) that they will slow down PlayStation download speeds in order to ensure that people who are working from home/need to stay up to date with news can do so.
It’s unclear what the speeds will be slowed to, and looks like it will only affect download speeds, so those playing online shouldn’t be impacted, but nonetheless, it’s definitely going to hurt when there’s going to be an increased amount of people playing games.
THE FULL STATEMENT FROM SONY BELOW:
Playing videogames enables players all over the world to connect with friends and family and enjoy much-needed entertainment during these uncertain times. Sony Interactive Entertainment is working with internet service providers in Europe to manage download traffic to help preserve access for the entire Internet community.
We believe it is important to do our part to address Internet stability concerns as an unprecedented number of people are practicing social distancing and are becoming more reliant on Internet access.
Players may experience somewhat slower or delayed game downloads but will still enjoy robust gameplay. We appreciate the support and understanding from our community, and their doing their part, as we take these measures in an effort to preserve access for everyone.
This follows the likes of YouTube and Facebook who have lowered internet streaming quality. YouTube is reportedly set to follow suite as well. There’s been a lot of misinformation online in regards to “online gaming” using a lot of data, which isn’t the case. Playing games online with friends uses less data than video streaming. Obviously, downloading games down use a lot of bandwidth, which is what Sony (and undoubted other providers) will look to limit at this time of increased load. If other countries around the world are struggling with this, you wonder how well Australia will be equipped to cope.
