The world is racing at two speeds: so while Wuhan, the epicenter of the crisis, returns to normal and Italy still seems to be halfway through the journey, other parts of the globe are now in the first weeks of their coronavirus lockdowns.
It is not strange, then, that Sony PlayStation arrives now, a little late, with Play at Home. As CEO Jim Ryan explains on the PS Blog, the initiative consists of two parts. In Italy, from April 16 to May 6 two games will be free to download: the collection of Uncharted, the saga of the treasure hunter (“we cannot imagine a better time to travel the world with his adventures”), and Journey, an indie poetic and relaxing game with a fairytale style. Jim Ryan writes: “have fun at our expense”.
United States and the European Union at a time of great stress on national networks. This is especially true of Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, which contains the PS3 trilogy Naughty Dog remastered for the four. I’m Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception.
The second part of Play at Home is a fund to support smaller, independent video game studios that may be experiencing financial difficulties. For now, $ 10 million has been allocated.
Google and WHO came before Sony
Google has made its Stadia Pro video game streaming service free for two months. The offer, accessible here, is valid for 14 countries affected by the virus and in various ways in lockdown, including Italy. It works but lick a little.
The first appeal to the video game industry came from WHO a few weeks earlier, with the #PlayApartTogether campaign (playing far but close) to keep people at home by keeping them glued to a joystick. Most of the houses that publish online games, such as Riot Games and Activision, had answered the call.
https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2020/04/14/announcing-the-play-at-home-initiative/
