MTV teams up with Mega Man to compare console download speeds

Since the beginning of this console generation, one question has been on the minds of ... probably a few people, at some point: which home console is the fastest downloader? To answer that question, the staff of MTV Multiplayer engaged in an informal experiment using the one game shared by PSN, XBLA, and WiiWare: Mega Man 9.

The winner? It's kind of complicated! For one thing, it turns out that the Wii version of the game is much smaller: just 8.3 MB versus 63 MB on PSN and 88.7 on XBLA, necessitating a MB/sec measurement. In addition, the download speeds varied for the three members of the Multiplayer team, preventing a definitive answer. They tested the download speeds of various other (non-shared) games and got the same all-over-the-place results.

In the end, they were able to come to a useful conclusion: the PlayStation 3 downloaded games more quickly over a wireless connection, and the Xbox 360 downloaded games more quickly overall (because of its use of a wired connection). You guys can probably get some kind of fanboy boast out of that if you really want to.

Mega Man 9 (WiiWare, PSN, XBLA)

Reader Comments (119)

so this article basically says that they tried to test things up and they couldnt come up with a correct way of measuring things up...

Ok someone may have went here already but I didn't go through all the post but what the heck does wired or wireless have to do with this. Yes wired has more availible bandwidth but 802.11g has a possible 54Mb connection now unless you are really lucky you are not going to have a connection that can harness all 54Mb my dsl is 3Mb and alot of the nicer cables connections dont get over 16Mb. So unless you live in Korea or somewhere with the 60Mb Internet(they are shooting for gigabit to home users in the furture)it should not make a difference.

My personal experience has been Microsoft just has faster downloads. And it makes sense since they have been doing this for years before the 360 lots of infrastucture and bandwidth in place pushing patches all these years. My PS3 downloads have been getting much better though in the last 6 months or so.

Those download speeds have NOTHING on my Dreamcast 56k Modem...cause that's the way my DC internets rolls.

My last 147MB download came in a lot quicker than others before it. My top download speed is like 810mbps which gives around a meg a second, and that seemed about what was happening. This is a HUGE improvement over past downloads and I hope the next one is as good...

I don't see how using a wired or wireless connection can make a difference, when both are connecting to a router at much faster rate than the internet connection...

Yeah, but wireless connections aren't always reliable. You get a lot more lost packets and such on wireless. Overall the difference likely isn't very big, but if you're going to do a comparison at least try to minimize the differences you can actually control. In this case they should have had them all wired or all wireless.

From my experience, the xbox seems to download faster through wifi or wire than the ps3 on wifi or wire. One thing I noticed but never REALLY investigated is that on the PS3, it seems that if you start a download and background it, it goes a bit slower. I also see the same effect if there is a download going and I'm very active on the system. So I'm not wondering if the download manager is throttling the download.

Once again, I haven't really researched this its just something I think I have noticed.

I don't have a Wii or a 360. I don't know if they have internal internet browsers or not, but wouldn't it be easier just to navigate to a neutral speed testing website and judge from there?

Even if you could do that (you can't, the 360 doesn't have a web browser), its not really the same, since a generic speed test website isn't testing the PSN file servers or XBLA file servers.

Well, i have a PS3 and a Wii connected over Wifi one next to the other and I must say Wii works way faster on my WifI than PS3

Yesterday, it took 1 hour to download only 10% of RE5 demo, while when I downloaded megaman 9, it took about 3 minutes to be ready to play.

Maybe my router config are not optimized for the PS3, i'll try what zetross putted of the NAT type 3 (actually, i found this thread over the PS3 forum http://www.google.com.mx/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fboardsus.playstation.com%2Fplaystation%2Fboard%2Fmessage%3Fboard.id%3Dpsnetwork%26thread.id%3D60067&ei=PHeISfPdGqTaMO2PwdkH&usg=AFQjCNH1swAaUnBS3ik1-ys6g_dJHTY5LQ&sig2=-St0RIM-43PfwEHLELyPLw ) so 'll be looking into this issue later, as i'm in the office "working" right now, :P

My 360 downloads really quickly, I use a wired connection for 100mbps, which is better than the wireless (54mbps) could offer..
did mtv check that that there connections were all open, using CAT5e ethernet cable? as PS3 is the only one that can use gigabit ethernet (with a CAT6e & suitable router)
my mates 360, took something like 45 minutes to download the RE5 demo (a lot longer than the demo lasted between us) compared to my 5-10 minutes it took for mine.. the Wii on the otherhand.. takes forever to download anything, both over wired or wireless. my PSP downloads things faster..

This test was pointless. In the end, any wii game is going to finish downloading sooner than any 360 game since it is so much smaller. Comparing the 360 to the ps3 on the other hand is a fairer comparison. The ps3 version may have finished downloading faster because, i think (not sure), that the 360 installs the game during the download. The install on the ps3 is separate, so the ps3 naturally would finish downloading sooner. Idk.

What kinda test is this? Wired vs Wireless. What a waste of time...Are you trying to start a flame war. Put PS3 Vs 360 wired.

i knew it. this confirms that POS of a writer, who did the IGN PSN review, was a dummy. he said PSN downloads are slow. i said, that's just he's imagination, his internet connection or his xbot bias. he retorted with a lame ass arguement. i countered with an experiment similar to this.

also, the 3fixme only won because it was wired and the others were wi-fi:

Conclusion: Ok, ok. Let’s collect ourselves. Notice that the only time the Xbox 360 won one of these speed tests above was on Patrick’s wired connection [vs wifi with the others]. The Wii never won these contests, supporting my theory that it is a bit slow.

The PS3 is the console that won most of these races. So that’s the headline for now: PS3 Downloads Games Fastest Over Wi-Fi

I have a 360 and a PS3 and I can tell you that the 360 downloads much, much faster.

i agree, but i also noticed that since the NXE update, 360 downloads are much slower now and streams stop and load many times now.
that never happened to me on inside xbox before and now i cant watch 1 of those videos without the stream stopping and loading 1 or 2 times.
they are getting to be very similar now IMO, and psn is free.

You know I remember back when the 360 was new, it took forever to download anything. Now it's a lot better might it might have something to do with my internet improving. I just hope we never see another catastrophe like when the Halo 3 announce trailer came out. You couldn't do anything on the marketplace.

I like how xbox fanboys always jump on download speeds, but now they have nothing to say. And if they do, it's "Well, does it even matter?"

When I decide to buy a game that's available on both PSN and XBLA (of which there really aren't that many), I generally read some online reviews to see if there are any differences in the consoles and decide which one I'd rather play it on. (For example, I bought Mega Man 9 on PSN simply for the better d-pad.)

Download speed never, ever crosses my mind.

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MTV teams up with Mega Man to compare console download speeds

Mega Man 9 (WiiWare, PSN, XBLA)

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