In a bid to keep internet access alive for the millions of people being asked to stay at home, YouTube, Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, and Disney have all agreed to downgrade the quality of their video streams. Now Sony is taking action as well, but for digital gaming.
Posting on the PlayStation Blog, Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, announced that game downloads across Europe are being slowed down and in some cases delayed on PlayStation consoles. It means that if you purchase a digital game through PSN, it's going to take longer for the gigabytes of data required to play it reach your console's hard drive.
Although this may be frustrating for anyone confined to their home and eager to play the latest games, it's being done for a very good cause. A lot of those people staying at home still need to work, and slowing down game downloads means there's more bandwidth available for everyone to maintain access to the internet and keep working. It's also imperative the internet remains accessible to all so they can remotely stay in touch with friends and family through voice and video chat.
I'd be surprised if Nintendo and Microsoft didn't also sign up to slower downloads for their consoles in the next few days. At worst it's a minor inconvenience, but one that could make all the difference for people struggling to get through this pandemic. Steam, Epic Games, EA's Origin, Apple, and Google could also take similar action for their gaming services.
Further Reading
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- Facebook and Disney Reduce Video Quality Across Europe
- Bezos: Amazon Workers Don't Have Enough Face Masks
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