With the unprecedented number of people now working from home or otherwise isolating due to Covid-19, the companies responsible for several major online services have had to adapt to the growing demand. Netflix has already done this by lowering the bitrate of its streaming content, and now Google, Sony, and Microsoft have joined forces in limiting the impact their YouTube, PlayStation, and Xbox services respectively have on congestion and overall usage. bandwidth
YouTube Strangler
For Google, the company sets its default YouTube video platform to 480p image quality settings globally, just days after adopting the change in Europe. This means that anyone accessing a YouTube video in the future will automatically set it to the standard definition (480p) setting, but you can set it to a higher setting if you wish. The change will roll out globally in the coming days. So it may not be available to all users right now, but it should last for at least 30 days. It should be noted that this period may well be extended as the situation evolves. While in theory everyone could simply revert to the highest available resolution every time they watch a video, the reason is that many videos (like those seen on smartphones, for example) only require no high-end streams. resolution to get the most out of them, and many users won't notice the difference.
Sony and other game companies
As for Sony's involvement in all of this, an article on its PlayStation blog said that the company will limit the speed at which gamers can download games in Europe, but assures the community that online gaming will not be affected. . Specifically, Sony said that gamers may experience "slightly slower or lag game downloads, but would still enjoy robust gameplay" to "resolve internet stability issues." As the major US content service Akamai noted in a blog post, "one software update for a modern game generates a traffic volume of approximately 30,000 web pages." As such, the company is chatting with major software vendors in the video game industry, including Microsoft and Sony, to see if they can help control internet congestion during peak hours. Microsoft's current statement says that the company will "actively monitor performance and usage trends for service optimization," but there are currently no measures in place. At this point, there is no official word from other companies that distribute game software, such as Nintendo, Valve or Epic Games, about the implementation of measures, but we will probably know in the coming days and weeks.