Looks Like Bandwidth's Getting In The Way Of Capcom's Costume "Catalog" Updates On PS3.

On the 360, if you participate in an online match with someone wearing a DLC costume, you'll be able to see the get-up even if you haven't purchased it. On PlayStation 3 you can't. This is because Capcom offers a free download on XBOX Live known as a "Catalog" update. This downloads the files onto the player's 360, allowing them to view the costumes but not select them.

The "Catalog" updates have never appeared on the PlayStation 3. Why? Bandwidth appears to be the culprit.

“The DLC for the newest costumes is additional data that must be put on your machines from the first-party networks (XBL and PSN),” wrote community bigwig Seth Killian wrote on Capcom’s forums.

“When you add new data to an existing product, there are significant costs to do so charged by the first parties. On XBL, those costs were covered by Microsoft. As a result, the data is distributed to everyone, so even if you have not bought the new costumes, you can still see them if you’re fighting against someone that has because you still received the new data required to display them.

“For Sony, those significant costs are not covered. As a result, you only get the new costume data when you actually buy the costumes. Those that don’t buy the costumes can’t see them, because the new costume data isn’t present on your machine, and so you only see costumes you already have the data to represent.

“The story is a bit more complicated because the costs of adding new data vary by region in some cases, and some additions are free, or free within a certain time-frame, etc., but the bottom line in this particular case is that Sony would [have] charged Capcom significant fees for distributing the new costume data to users that hadn’t actually bought the DLC. Microsoft covered those costs, so the costume data is visible to all there.”

All fair and valid points. Of course, the crux that Killian's not touching on at all here is that Microsoft aren't covering the bandwidth at all — XBOX Live subscribers are. Well hey, that £40 monthly charge has to go towards something other than peer-to-peer matchmaking, doesn't it?