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PSN to prioritize internet stability due to high traffic caused by COVID-19

Across the United States and Europe, PlayStation is enacting various strategies to ensure internet stability for players, which may somewhat slow connections.

TJ Denzer

March 27, 2020 11:40 AM

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As many of us stay at home and practice social distancing to combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, it means internet usage has spiked quite a bit. To that end, a lot of different entertainment platforms have enacted various strategies to attempt to maintain the issue and ensure internet stability. PlayStation is among the latest to announce it will be enacting such policies on the PlayStation Network across the United States and Europe.

PlayStation announced its upcoming plans to ensure internet stability in a post on the PlayStation blogs. First announced on March 24, 2020 for European regions, plans for PlayStation Network internet usage in the United States were later added to the post on March 27, 2020.

“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,” PlayStation wrote. “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.”

UPDATE: SIE is working with internet service providers in Europe to help preserve access for the entire internet community: https://t.co/nPJH13ana4 pic.twitter.com/W9cO6yIolf

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) March 24, 2020

PlayStations efforts follow those of other companies that have taken measures to ensure internet usage is widely available to players and customers. AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon announced they would be temporarily removing data caps on their services and YouTube announced it would default all videos to standard definition to save internet bandwidth. It’s a unique problem for internet bandwidth around the world when no company is used to so many people being stranded inside at once with nothing to do but game, stream, and use other internet services.

PlayStation has promised that their new actions won’t affect connections too much, but we’ll see as they roll out these efforts to ensure internet stability across two continents.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.