Sony delays PlayStation game downloads to relieve European providers

Sony works with European providers to manage download traffic. As a result, according to the PlayStation maker, players may experience slower or delayed game downloads. The gameplay remains “robust”, according to Sony.

Sony does not give exact details about the adjustments to game downloads, but reports on its blog that there is a collaboration with European providers to relieve them where necessary. This was done because many people are now at home due to measures to contain the corona pandemic. It is not clear until when the adjustments will be active.

According to the blog, players may experience “slightly slower” game downloads. Sony’s download servers are not known for being fast. It is unclear to what extent that will change. Sony also talks about ‘delayed downloads’. The manufacturer may be referring to updates that are performed automatically in the background. Sony could possibly postpone it if there is a peak in data traffic.

It became clear earlier this week that games have a lot of influence on data traffic. AMS-IX then announced that the biggest recent spike in traffic was caused by Call of Duty: Warzone. This free battle royale game is available on the PlayStation 4, among others, and requires a download of many tens of gigabytes.

Playing multiplayer games via the PlayStation network is probably not affected by the measures. Sony says the gameplay experience remains “robust.” Multiplayer games require relatively little data traffic, much less than, for example, video streaming. All major video streaming services have already taken measures to relieve providers, after the European Commission called for this.