Patch Download?

[bungiefanNA]

1) It's a lot of files, because it's essentially adding an expansion, like Abyssea patches did.

2) This is a very publicised patch for a new expansion, so everyone is really eager to check it out, especially because the expansion is free, so everyone gets it at once.

3) The server is thus being overloaded by everyone trying to patch at once. Reddit and some other forums have the new files available to install through a ZIP file, which takes about 5 minutes to download, and then only the Check Files step needs to be done. If you're not on console, that's a way to patch faster and take load off the update servers.

must be some big files or something cuz i have a good connection with cable internet and my download is crawling too. been going for over three hours and just hit 28%. whats the deal SE?

Your connection is fine, it's SE's connection that is being the bottleneck. Thousands of people are hammering the update server all at once. It's like you leaving your house to go to BestBuy for midnight release of a major game. The path out of your house is just used by you, but the door to the store has a huge line waiting to get in. You're waiting not because your resources are strained, but because the store's resources are strained to handle the traffic.