Sony is making the decision to decrease the PS4 download times in both the US and in Europe.
The measure is one that Sony is taking in an attempt to help keep internet access running at a stable rate for everyone in both regions. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your game downloads will be exceedingly slow.
It does mean however that you are likely to see a game download at least a little bit slower than before. This may or may not be worse for people who connect their PS4 systems to the internet via Wi-Fi as opposed to ethernet.
Slower PS4 download speeds will not impact gameplay
While players might worry that slower download speeds will lead to issues with gaming experiences, Sony has assured its users that gameplay will not be impacted.
In its official announcement about slowing the speeds for game downloads, it states that it’s working with internet service providers in the US and in Europe for game downloads only.
Meanwhile gaming experiences will remain “robust,” which players can take to mean that there shouldn’t be any changes and that games should run as they always have on any user’s particular setup.
This obviously only refers to online games, and not those that are single player games which don’t require online interaction.
There’s no end date to the slower downloads
Slower download speeds in the US is beginning today, following the earlier change in Europe.
The company hasn’t given an end date though. For the time being players should simply expect that their game downloads will take longer than expected. More than likely it won’t revert back to normal download speeds until people are no longer required to stay home.
While the general consensus is that it could take up to a few more weeks, some speculate that quarantine could last well into the Summer months. Depending on how things shift throughout this whole situation.
In the end players will just need to plan around the slower game downloads. Where you might have started a download for a large game a mere few hours before you want to play it, you might want to start it the day before just to be safe.
Another thing to consider are the downloads for pre-order digital games which have yet to be released. Hopefully Sony will allow for players to pre-download upcoming games sooner than initially planned to help counteract the slower downloads.