Earlier in the week, SIE President and CEO Jim Ryan took to the PlayStation Blog to announce Sony’s plan of slowing download speeds in Europe. Such an effort aims to mitigate the blow many countries are facing in the wake of increased internet traffic, which is due to coronavirus-related lockdowns. Now Sony is extending those same efforts to the United States starting today, working with internet providers to better manage download traffic.
Ryan shared the news in a PlayStation Blog update, telling fans the following,
Beginning today, we will take similar measures in the United States, and we will continue to take appropriate action to do our part to help ensure internet stability as this unprecedented situation continues to evolve. We are grateful for the role we play in helping deliver a sense of community and entertainment in these very trying times. Thank you again for your support, your patience, and for being part of the PlayStation community. Please stay home and stay safe.
Essentially, this means players are bound to experience slower or delayed downloads speeds across PlayStation platforms. It’s important to note that this shouldn’t extend to gameplay at all, so your online and multiplayer game experiences should remain unaffected, at least on Sony’s end. Internet congestion, in general, could potentially impact the quality of online games, but Sony’s focus remains on large downloads of game and update files. Whether or not this will eventually extend to countries outside of US and European borders currently remains unknown. However, it would not be too surprising if further measures were taken in the weeks ahead.
Sony counts as just one of many companies putting these types of restrictions into action for users. Similarly, the likes of Netflix, YouTube, and Disney+ have all put forth measures to mitigate stress on internet services in various countries.
[Source: PlayStation Blog]
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