How much internet bandwidth will WoW Voice Chat use up?

 

We found on very interesting question over at the World of Warcraft Forums and it’s about an upcoming addition to blockbuster MMO, (no, not the Wrath of the Lich King) voice chat. Appompyro from Stonemaul asks whether voice chat will eat up precious download and upload usage.

The player explained that his “internet connection plan has a download limit” so when that’s maxed, he won’t be able to play WoW until the next month. Appompyro was concerned about how much download and upload usage the voice chat would add on top of playing. Players have been concerned whether the in-game voice chat will affect things like bandwidth usage and additional latency issues, most of which were addressed by Nethaera‘s voice chat FAQ. We know that voice chat will use up additional bandwidth, but don’t know how much. Blizzard poster Tigerclaw addressed the question:

The added voice chat bandwidth should be comparable to the basic WoW game traffic, but the actual total amount will vary depending on how much talking you do. Silent times should see no traffic due to voice chat.

I don’t think we have released any numbers yet on the data rate of the WoW voice chat solution.

Hopefully, we’ll be seeing those numbers soon. Otherwise, people with limited internet connection services will surely keep their mouths shut or turn off the feature while playing the World of Warcraft.

 

We found on very interesting question over at the World of Warcraft Forums and it’s about an upcoming addition to blockbuster MMO, (no, not the Wrath of the Lich King) voice chat. Appompyro from Stonemaul asks whether voice chat will eat up precious download and upload usage.

The player explained that his “internet connection plan has a download limit” so when that’s maxed, he won’t be able to play WoW until the next month. Appompyro was concerned about how much download and upload usage the voice chat would add on top of playing. Players have been concerned whether the in-game voice chat will affect things like bandwidth usage and additional latency issues, most of which were addressed by Nethaera‘s voice chat FAQ. We know that voice chat will use up additional bandwidth, but don’t know how much. Blizzard poster Tigerclaw addressed the question:

The added voice chat bandwidth should be comparable to the basic WoW game traffic, but the actual total amount will vary depending on how much talking you do. Silent times should see no traffic due to voice chat.

I don’t think we have released any numbers yet on the data rate of the WoW voice chat solution.

Hopefully, we’ll be seeing those numbers soon. Otherwise, people with limited internet connection services will surely keep their mouths shut or turn off the feature while playing the World of Warcraft.