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It Takes The Average UK Broadband Connection Over 8.5 Hours to Download a 50GB Game

by on December 2, 2013
 

You may sit there, reading this on your swanky laptop, with download speeds that rival those of a Concorde…or, you may be like much of the UK and have a very modest Internet connection. That doesn’t bode well for the next-generation of consoles, it seems.

Virgin Media commissioned an independent party to research a section of the UK to see if people understand a number of things, like how long it will take to download a video game on one of the new systems.

78% of those surveyed, thought a 50GB game could be downloaded and installed in under five hours, with 42% believing it would take only two hours. However, on average, it would take a broadband user in the UK, over eight and a half hours to download a game of that size.

Virgin Media are Sony’s official Internet partner and they obviously commissioned this research, so the fact that they’re touting their 120Mb connection as the pinnacle is no surprise. To be fair, they say that a 50GB game would take approximately 65 minutes with them and they do plan to boost speeds in 2014 and they’re also introducing a 152MB option.

But, the main takeaway here is that, people aren’t prepared for the dreaded, “forever connected”, experience. Thankfully, we’re not there yet and people can still go into stores and pick up Killzone: Shadow Fall or Ryse: Son of Rome, and not have to worry about waiting an absolute age, or blowing through their daily limit.

The always online console is coming, most definitely. But, until ISPs extend their reach to every corner of this country — and every other country, for that matter — it would kill a significant portion of the market.

Have a gander at the stats below, which show how long it would take many different download speeds to download a 50GB game. It encourage you to hop into your car and drive into town, rather than add funds to your virtual wallet.

Home broadband speed Estimated download time for one 50GB game
0.5Mb 10.7 days
2Mb 2.7 days (65 hours)
10Mb 13 hours
14.7Mb (national average) 8 hr 48 mins
30Mb 4 hr 19 mins
60Mb 2 hr 9 mins
120Mb 65 mins
152Mb (available 2014 from Virgin Media) 51 mins