On Tuesday, Sony gave a heads up that game downloads over the PlayStation Network in Europe would be slower during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Now U.S. players will take the same hit on the opposite end of the Atlantic.
Via a PlayStation Blog post, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO and President Jim Ryan explained that the company was working with European internet service providers to manage download traffic in an effort to help preserve internet across its countries. The post has since been updated to note that the same plan now applies to the U.S. too.
"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."
With mostly all of us stuck inside as the world tries to stop the coronavirus from spreading, internet usage, naturally, has went up. Sony hasn't been alone in trying to limit its data imprint either, as Netflix made the move to reduce the bitrate of its video streaming in Europe for the next month.
PSN will still be accessible in full, but with a string of big releases coming up over the next couple weeks -- Persona 5 Royal (March 31), Resident Evil 3 (April 3) and Final Fantasy VII Remake (April 10) -- just make sure you have something else to do to pass the time during installs and updates. Granted, if you've downloaded any game from PSN in the past few years, you already knew that.