Next generation console launches

Hey all,

As we approach a new generation of games consoles.

I wonder if all the backhauls are ready for the huge amount of data that is going to be required on Tuesday for the Xbox Series X/S launches with the vast amount of redownloads that are going to be needed for the latest game updates.

Think with the vast majority of people working from home the network is going to be under massive stress and could we see latency increase across the UK for a while?

In reply to a post by Bryer:

Think with the vast majority of people working from home the network is going to be under massive stress and could we see latency increase across the UK for a while?

I say no, this was tested back in Lockdown 1 when Europe and others asked the video streaming companies to reduce quality, and the network companies (BT and others) responded with "hey, what?? we have no issue".

I don't know the numbers, but I would think there are more Netflix/Amazon/Britbox/iPlayer viewers than there are XBox/PS5 customers??

It might break a record of 2 but I'd be very surprised if any provider couldn't cope.

They've all coped exceptionally well with previous very large game releases and updates that have been released for multiple platforms on the same day.
While a new console will mean multiple games being downloaded at once rather than a single game, it's on 1 platform and not on multiple platforms which have coped well in the past

WFH has had little impact.

Netflix, YouTube, Amazon etc all lowering the quality of their streams at the start of lockdown 1 was in response to EU calls or to help their own networks cope.
None of the UK providers asked for it.

Plenty of other events that could have broken things before.

How many consoles are actually set to be delivered that day? The spread out of deliveries is going to spread any load caused by a new console launch.

It's not just one game releasing on Tuesday.

You're looking at about 20 new games being released on Xbox Series X/S with about 50 games all due to receive upgrades on their existing footprint, which are approximately 50gb of additional downloads on those footprints.

Will be interesting to see.

Would be interesting to see the BQM models and speed tests throughout Tuesday and Wednesday.

50 games and how many new consoles are expected to be delivered on Tuesday?

In excess of 100,000 in the UK I believe.

In reply to a post by Bryer:

It's not just one game releasing on Tuesday.

You're looking at about 20 new games being released on Xbox Series X/S with about 50 games all due to receive upgrades on their existing footprint, which are approximately 50gb of additional downloads on those footprints.

Will be interesting to see.

My comment acknowledged their would be multiple downloads rather than a single update.

This is on a single platform rather than multiple platforms.
Stock of the new consoles was very limited with pre orders selling out quick as stock levels couldn't cope.

There could will be less data transmitted by the relatively small number with the new console doing multiple downloads compared to the many more users who have received a single large download across multiple platforms in the past.

I'm also interested to see how they cope, but expect they will cope fine.

Edit: typo

Edited by j0hn83 (Fri 06-Nov-20 13:21:55)

I think there wont be an issue as Sony and Microsoft may have to throttle downloads their end if demand is too high.