NBA 2K13 Loading Time Evaluation

One generally overlooked aspect of sports titles, where the in and out of games can result in significant time spent waiting around, is the efficiency in loading times. Series like NCAA Football and MLB: The Show have suffered tremendously due to extensive loading times.

NBA 2K, on the other hand, has been extremely crisp in recent years. That is the case yet again with NBA 2K13 which has brisk loading times and still even benefits some from being installed on the Xbox 360 hard drive. 

Install time- 14:23
Install size- 8.3 GB

Loading Times
Boot to main menu- 42 seconds disc vs 40 seconds HDD (2 seconds)
Load into Play Now Game- 46 seconds disc vs 25 seconds HDD (21 seconds)
Leave Game to Menu- 6 seconds disc vs 3 seconds HDD (3 seconds)
Load into Training Camp- 22 seconds disc vs 13 seconds HDD (9 seconds)
Load into Dunk Contest- 29 seconds disc vs 21 seconds HDD (8 seconds)
Load into Saved Association- 11 seconds disc vs 7 seconds HDD (4 seconds)
Load into Saved MyCareer- 15 seconds disc vs 10 seconds HDD (5 seconds)
Load into Saved MyTeam- 4 seconds disc vs 3 seconds HDD (1 second)

NBA 2K13 is the largest sports title to date on the 360 coming in at 8.3 GB. Load times improved vs 2K12 and some nice savings are seen with the install when starting up games in particular for those who like to skip past the presentation. Savings in other areas are marginal but helpful. Installing to the hard drive is recommended for the reduced noise and wear and tear put on the system in addition to any improvements seen in loading times.