I bought Fist Of The North Star form the eshop and it's going to take like 20 hours to download a 12GB game. I started it at 6 PM yesterday and it's 3 AM how and it's not 50% done. I have downloaded games around 12GB and large software before on other systems and it usually only takes around 3 to 4 hours tops for anything to download. They got to fix this slow download time it shouldn't take this long. Holy Cow Nintendo!.

It took 22 for me to download Warriors Orochi 3 hyper, and that's a 15 gig game.

Wow. Just out of interest, at what speeds are you usually able to download at on your computer? I can download from steam at about 1MB per second.

I haven't downloaded anything big from the eShop yet. I downloaded the FIFA demo and that didn't take too long.

The biggest game I've downloaded is Ninja Gaiden 3, which I believe was just over 5GB. Given disc software has an upper limit of 25GB I figured eventually I'd be looking at games that would still be downloading when I wake up (a big part of why I'm concerned about the screen life on the Gamepad and wish it had a sleep setting). Generally speaking I don't kick off disc downloads until I'm ready to go to bed so I don't know how long they actually take beyond saying that I average 6-7 hours of sleep on week nights.

I have a pretty fast link: 18Mbps fibre-to-the-cabinet BT Infinity) and I routinely buy iTunes films and RiffTrax content that's up to 2GB in size. Normally these files take less than an hour to download - even if I queue up more than one at a time and in the case of RiffTrax the servers are based in the States. Nintendo's downloads take a factor of two to four times longer to download on average, however I found New Super Mario Bros. U was pretty quick.

I'd say Nintendo needs to beef up their throughput, but I hope everyone can agree it's light years better than the old Wii Shop!

my speed is usually pretty fast I have never really thought it was slow. I normally I can download a 7GB game on other systems in 1 hour and 1/2 to 2 hours. I download some demos on the WiiU and I didn't feel they took to long, maybe a little longer then normal but not much. This is the first full game I have downloaded from the shop. I think downloading from the eshop is just really slow.

There's a massive difference in speed ... I recently downloaded sleepingdogs via my ps3 & it took about 40mins ... the same game (if available) would have probably taken 4 hours on the wiiu... Nintendo need 2 join the 20th century imo.

I downloaded a 22 GB game in NBA 2K13 and it did take at least four times as long as the equivalent on other download platforms.

I pay for a very fast connection and I don't really appreciate waiting hours for a game to download any longer 22GB is big, but I do expect to be playing the game in the same gaming session to when I downloaded it.

are you guys using a WiFi connection to download? they're not really suitable for large downloads in my experience. Thats why i use my Wii LAN adapter

Seems like it would be quicker to order the game online,than downloading it off the e-shop.

I am using WiFi, but I haven't found it a barrier. There is some overhead and I do have my phone and iPad running which I know adds to that, but there's still a big difference in speed between an eShop download and iTunes or Steam. I'm also using 802.11n which isn't exactly slow. I should easily get my full bandwidth over air.

I downloaded Tekken Tag Tournament 2 a couple days ago, and it took about 7 hours to download and install. That ones 15.5GB about. I think it really just depends on your location, and service provider. ZombiU took 2 1/2 hours, and thats 6GB about. Mario took 1 1/2 hours. All at 7mb/s according to Century Link.

My PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 are connected to exactly the same WiFi connection as my Wii U.

The problem is not on my end, nor my ISP. The problem with these slow downloads lies with Nintendo.

You mean the 21st century? Haha. They're still trying to stabalize the services first I think. Once the spring update comes, overall system stability should be better, and services will work faster.

I think the ethernet cord actually has a limit in speed, too. I'm pretty sure the LAN connection tops out at 10mb/s because of bandwidth through a cord, while wireless has more flexibility as long as your router is communicating correctly. I don't mess with the router settings, because they are usually good to go right out of the box.

And there is a perfect example of why physical media isint going anywhere for some time.

Because Nintendo can't do digital right?

Wii Lan adapter has been shown here and elsewhere to be actually slower than wifi on the wii u, due to the system being optimized for wifi and the wii lan adapter transmitting data slowly due to it being a usb 1,0 device. I've confirmed this myself.

It's not going anywhere for Nintendo consoles.

Not necessarily althought it certainly doesent help (my 50mb connection maxes at 12mbs downloasding from nintendo network/ 46mb from 360 so i dont know whats going on there!) it's easy to forget if you have a decent enough connection speed) just how many people are still on miniscule 1-3mbps connections, 15gb at this speed will take a long time even if you max out your speed.

Hey, Sean, it does. Press the Home button, go to Controller Settings, then press Display Off. It will stay off until you press a button.