Coronavirus – Phil Spencer says it is heartening to see that people are using video games as a way to stay in touch with each other.
„It’s heartening to hear from so many people using gaming as a way to stay connected during these times. Play is a fundamental human need. Proud to be part of an industry that can offer escape and fun right now. Stay safe,”
Spencer wrote on Twitter. When asked about the servers’ usage and demand, he replied with the following:
„Usage is up on almost everything. Thanks go out to all the Ops/IT teams at all the companies that are working hard to keep everything running smoothly with all going on around them.”
So Xbox Live has a lot of activity (which is why it’s not surprising if it sometimes goes down).
But not just that: Valve’s popular service/digital store, Steam has also silently broken a record: „Steam has just reached a new concurrent online user record of 20 million, with 6.2 million currently in-game, likely due to many people staying at home due to the coronavirus,” SteamDB wrote. So a lot of players either browsed the service for a game or two, or they outright played something in their isolation. The most played games at the moment are Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (606 thousand players), followed by DotA 2 (404316) and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (245190). Even right now, there are 15+ million users logged in.
Rockstar announced on Twitter that to stop the spread of the coronavirus, they announced that the employees will work from home internationally, which should happen with minimum disruption. Their online games will work as before, and their support teams will be available. Last week, Bungie has announced a similar move, which is reasonable.
No wonder many ISPs (such as AT&T in the United States or Videotron in Quebec, Canada) decided to get rid of the data caps.
Source: WCCFTech, VG247, VG247
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![However, an anonymous GOG employee paints an even darker tone of the internal situation: „We were told it’s a financial decision. GOG’s revenue couldn’t keep up with growth, the fact that we’re dangerously close to being in the red has come up in the past few months, and the market’s move towards higher [developer] revenue shares have, or will, affect the bottom line as well.](https://thegeek.games/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/the-gog-1-302x180.jpg)
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