In today’s world, speed is everything and we want things NOW versus 30 seconds from now. This is especially true to us impatient gamers who want to just pop in a game and start playing. Of course, a lot has changed from 10 years ago and with the new generation of game consoles, this idea is a bit more complicated. All games have day 1 patches which are usually required before being able to play the game. To make makes a bit more complicated, with either the PS4 or Xbox One, even physical games on Blu-ray need to be installed. This is due to the large file sizes of games and the slower read speed of optical drives, versus the hard drive which reads (loads) much faster. However, similarities between the two consoles end there as a new report indicates that Xbox One games take over 10x longer to install than their PS4 counterpart.

A recent study done by Kotaku (yea, I know) pitted six multi-platform games against each to see how the install times would differ between the PS4 and Xbox One. From Kotaku:

 We tested six multiplatform games on both consoles and every time, the PS4 was under a minute while the Xbox One install was several minutes long and required downloading an update before beginning the installation. When you include downloading those updates for each Xbox One game that happen in the background on PS4, the install times can get as high as fifteen minutes before you can even launch the game. 

While running this test, another difference was discovered between the two consoles. On the Xbox One, all game patches must be downloaded before you can even install the game. On the PS4, as the game is installing, patches will be downloaded in the background, allowing you to jump into the game after the initial installation is completed. Furthermore, the installation time between the two systems was quite shocking:

Assassin’s Creed IV:
Xbox One (offline, no update): 5 minutes 50 seconds
Xbox One (with update, fastest connection): 7 minutes 2 seconds
Xbox One (with update, 10Mbps connection): 10 minutes 32 seconds
PS4: 42 secondsP

 

The rest of these were tested on our office Wi-Fi which is around 9-11Mbps. It may have been faster on a wired connection, but you can compare your own connection speed here. These are our results:

 

Need For Speed Rivals:
XBO: 09:25 (including update)
PS4: 00:32P

Just Dance 2014:
XBO: 08:48 (including update)
PS4: 00:45P

NBA Live 14: 
XBO: 16:26 (including update)
PS4: 00:35P

FIFA 14:
XBO: 16:06 (including update)
PS4: 00:34P

Madden 25:
XBO: 9:38 (including update)
PS4: 00:38P

Keep in mind that the times quoted above are not for the full installation of the game and instead how quickly the initial installation finishes before allowing you jump into the game. Both consoles  will continue to install the game in the background while you play it. You can read more about the tests conducted by visiting Kotaku.

Discuss:

Are you surprised by the speed difference between the two consoles and have you experienced any long install times on either console? If so, what was the game and length?