Sony Thinks It’s ‘Crazy’ That Aussie ISPs Have Usage Caps


When Planetside 2’s multiplayer functionality went live last week, Aussies had a pretty terrible time of it. Between the massive lag and the issues logging in, the game was close to unplayable on the Australian server. The multiplayer service was eventually fixed, but not before Sony Online Entertainment threw a bit of mud at Australian ISPs.

Sony Online Entertainment’s forum representative for Planetside 2 took to the site on Friday to thank everyone in Australia for being patient about the server issues.

Before summarising the issues that plagued the Australian server, though, Veratu (SOE’s representative) said that deploying Planetside 2 multiplayer into Australia had been difficult due to the state of Australian ISPs and various legal wrangling:

I want to iterate what transpired in one spot so it’s clear what occurred here. Before I do, let me re-state that every region that PlanetSide 2 runs in is configured, designed, and built the same from a hardware and infrastructure perspective. There is no one region that has a “better” setup than another. The only thing that differentiates them is physical locations in the world.

That being said, this deployment into Australia was definitely a unique experience. You guys have some very unusual laws and limitations that we simply don’t see anywhere else in the world. (ISPs cap your bandwidth and download amounts? That’s crazy! I personally will be investigating ways to make that better, if it’s possible, with regard to our games.)

I’m all for Sony Online Entertainment working with ISPs to make games unmetered in Australia, but will the “crazy” ISPs let it? That’s the real question. [SOE]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.