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PlayStation 3 vs. Nintendo Wii vs. Xbox 360: Which Console Downloads Games Fastest?

MTV’s Multiplayer blog tested and compared the download speeds of games on the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and the PlayStation 3.We pitted the three major consoles against each other, to see which one can download games the most quickly. “Mega Man 9″ - at least initially - was the guinea pig on our XBox 360s, Wiis and PlayStation 3s…

I’ve long suspected that my Nintendo Wii is a slowpoke.

All three of my consoles are connected to the same WiFi signal, one the emanates from my landlord’s apartment a floor below mine (we split the bill). When I download games and demos, they always seem to take longest on the Wii.

This past weekend, I convinced Patrick and Tracey here to help me test my theory.

We started with “Mega Man 9,” the only game available for download on all three systems.

I ran the rest first, at 8pm EST on Sunday. I did one at a time. These were the initial results:

-Mega Man 9 demo downloaded and installed on PS3: 142 seconds
-Mega Man 9 demo downloaded on Xbox 360: 345 second
-Mega Man 9 game downloaded on Wii: 27 seconds

Weird numbers, right?

I checked the size of these games. The PS3 and 360 list the size of their gaming content in megabytes. The Wii lists sizes in “blocks.” To figure out how big the Wii version was, I transferred “Mega Man 9″ onto an SD card, put the SD card into my computer and read the file size.

Here are the sizes:

-Mega Man 9 demo, PS3: 63 MB
-Mega Man 9 demo, Xbox 360: 88.7 MB
-Mega Man 9 game, Wii: 8.3 MB

As you can see, Mega Man 9 is not the same size on all machines. In fact, it’s wildly different in size. But we can still figure out speeds and see if my Wii is as slow as I think it is.

Such a discovery calls for some long division, which yielded the following results:

-Mega Man 9 download speed on PS3: .44 MB per second (1st place)
-Mega Man 9 download speed on Xbox 360: .26 MB per second (3rd place)
-Mega Man 9 download speed on Wii: .31 MB per second (2nd place)

That leads us to a possible headline: PS3 Downloads Games Faster Than Xbox 360 And Wii

But who can trust one test performed on one Sunday evening by one man? Not I.

Enter Tracey John and Patrick Klepek.

Patrick ran the test last night at 11PM PST with an Xbox 360 wired to his cable modem and a Wii and PS3 hooked up through a wireless g router.

His times:

-Mega Man 9 demo downloaded and installed on PS3: 80 seconds
-Mega Man 9 demo downloaded on Xbox 360: 104 second
-Mega Man 9 game downloaded on Wii: 24 seconds

His speeds:

-Mega Man 9 download speed on PS3: .79 MB per second (2nd place)
-Mega Man 9 download speed on Xbox 360: .86 MB per second (1st place)
-Mega Man 9 download speed on Wii: .35 MB per second (3rd place)

Those are different results, which lead to a different possible headline: Xbox 360 Downloads Games Faster Than PS3 And Wii (At least the Wii seems to be consistent here, huh?)

And now for Tracey’s test, which she ran this morning at 9AM ET with all three systems hooked up through a wireless g router:

Her times:

-Mega Man 9 demo downloaded and installed on PS3: 106 seconds
-Mega Man 9 demo downloaded on Xbox 360: 194 second
-Mega Man 9 game downloaded on Wii: 28 seconds

Her speeds:

-Mega Man 9 download speed on PS3: .59 MB per second (1st place)
-Mega Man 9 download speed on Xbox 360: .46 MB per second (2nd place)
-Mega Man 9 download speed on Wii: .30 MB per second (3rd place)

So based on her results we’re back to my headline: PS3 Downloads Games Faster Than Xbox 360 And Wii

With the scientific method failing us here, I decided to run one more test. This morning, at the same time Tracey was running her test, I re-downloaded the “Mega Man 9″ content to my systems and re-downloaded one other game each: “World of Goo” on the Wii, “Braid” on the 360 and “Everyday Shooter” on the PS3.

For my second “Mega Man 9″ test I got this:

-Mega Man 9 download speed on PS3: .55 MB per second (1st place)
-Mega Man 9 download speed on Xbox 360: .31 MB per second (2nd place)
-Mega Man 9 download speed on Wii: .30 MB per second (3rd place)

And for my other test this morning, I got this:

-Everyday Shooter game download speed on PS3: .67 MB per second (1st place)
-Braid game download speed on Xbox 360: .61 MB per second (2nd place)
-World of Goo game download speed on Wii: .55 MB per second (3rd place)

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. 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

Who wants to join in? If you have all three systems, run a download race yourself and tell us which system wins.

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Related Information

Posted by: z36
Date: February 3, 2009
Source: http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com

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