Capcom can't catch a break with their XBLA line-up as yet another release seems to be suffering from the current 150MB size restriction. In an interview with 1UP, Bionic Commando Rearmed producer Ben Judd outlined issues the development team is having with getting the NES remake to fit onto the acceptable Microsoft limit. What does this mean for the XBLA version? Well, PS3 and PC versions of the upcoming remake
When asked about the situation Microsoft seemed surprised by Capcom's trouble, "We raised our limit to 150 megs, which seems pretty darn great," said Microsoft's corporate VP of Xbox Live John Schappert. "I don't think it has limited our games in any way. Look at Rez HD. Look at Poker Smash. Look at Undertow. These are very, very, very good games."
Schappert, however, remains optimistic that a solution is possible. "If we need to help them program their stuff, we have people on [XNA General Manager] Chris Satchell's team that fly around and help our dev teams out when they need it," Schappert explained. "[Capcom] knows someone's number at Xbox Live. I'm certainly willing to help them out."
At it's core (pun!) the XBLA size limit issue is centered around the Arcade SKU which does not include the removable hard drive. The size limit, originally 50MB, was standardized in order to respect Xbox 360 owners who only have storage via a memory unit. We wonder though, since memory units range up to 512MB why isn't this limit increasing to facilitate heavily anticipated XBLA titles?
Update: Clarified the statement from Ben Judd. Judd told 1UP that the XBLA version will in fact have lower-res textures than the PS3/PC versions.
[via 1UP]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-22-2008 @ 5:53PM
Etchasketchist said...
If they can have so many SKU's for consoles, why not have two SKU's for the games? On under 150 and one with an unlimited size.
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2-22-2008 @ 5:58PM
MrMuggs said...
They limit the size for 2 reasons:
1) So a person with an Arcade unit can have more than 1 or 2 games.
2) Reduce the download time thereby serving the "quick download & play".
The question I would love to know though is how many people on sub-broadband connections are downloading XBL games? What's the market share and sales figures? If you raised the limit to 250 megs wouldn't you potentially have better looking and even longer games? By increasing the size limit maybe less sub-broadband people would buy XBL games but in turn more overall users might download the better(IMO) games.
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2-22-2008 @ 6:00PM
Neuromancer said...
Sometimes limitations really set us free.
Personally I think a few smaller textures are a small (ha) price to pay for not having out of control-sized XBLA games filling up our tiny, tiny hard drives.
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2-22-2008 @ 6:03PM
killr0y said...
its because MS knows that the bigger the storage cap is, the more sloppy the coding will be for the games.
Half the XBLA games that are out now are bloated pieces of trash that could have been done using 10% of the space they are taking up. Look at frogger and explain to me why a game that takes up 4k in MAME is taking 20MB in XBLA.
Sloppy ports. You could take MAME, throw in 50 classic arcade games, and still take up less space than a single XBLA game.
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2-22-2008 @ 6:21PM
Blue_Falcon said...
I like how games like Undertow and RoboBlitz, both incredibly beautiful games with UE3 tech are both under 50 MB...and these guys can't update an NES game and keep it under 150 MB.
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2-23-2008 @ 3:27AM
Ron said...
Its Unreal Engine 2 for those games, not 3. It would be a poor implementation of the engine if thats what they could get the game to look like with UE3.
2-23-2008 @ 8:16AM
RoboJoel said...
Check your facts...
They both use version 3. It's been well documented throughout the development of those games that they were built on Unreal Engine 3.
2-22-2008 @ 6:50PM
Tony said...
Because it's completely 3D with new music, new modes, new everything.
The size thing is stupid. Even when they had the 64MB card, it was almost impossible to have more than one arcade game on there. I certainly never managed it and given that your stuck also storing your profile on there, a lot of it eaten up. All I could fit on mine was one game, if I was lucky.
So I don't think putting more than one game on the 512 MB card matters because of that. Even if they were 200 MBs apiece, they'd both fit with plenty of room left over. I do not want to pay the same price as someone on PSN or Windows for a lesser product.
They were willing to forgo the size limit for Castlevania, I think they should be willing to forgo it for hyped games such as this and Street Fighter.
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2-22-2008 @ 6:55PM
Tony said...
Something else I noted is that 1Up didn't say "may" have lower resolution textures. They said "will". And while I hope MS works something out with them, how often have we read in such and such an interview that they were told too late about option A or they raised the limit after they made their final decision... it's not a good sign.
2-22-2008 @ 7:00PM
Xav de Matos said...
Fixed.
Thanks and I apologize for that.
2-22-2008 @ 8:14PM
Tony said...
Oh, I didn't think it was a problem with the post lol. It was just even more disappointing lol.
2-22-2008 @ 6:55PM
DeadPlasmaCell said...
I agree.. And the Prince of Persia remake is essentially the same thing and they pulled it off, I don't see why Capcom couldn't with this one. Though I do think the size limit is silly.
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2-22-2008 @ 6:56PM
Alex C. said...
someone tell that guy that undertow sucks.
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2-22-2008 @ 7:34PM
pkilla said...
Undertow was pretty fun imo
2-22-2008 @ 8:15PM
SABCA said...
I was surprised they announced a game as Bionic Commando for a remake in the first place. I mean, the game has more length and variety to it than most games considered for downloadable releases.
Still, I imagine with some programming trickery, they COULD get it to fit, sure. I wonder how cost effective that is for a game like this, though. Wouldn't it cost more to reverse-engineer the game to make it fit the 150 size? Wouldn't that effect the consumer price in the end? Unless Microsoft offers to front the bill, in which case, might as well accept their (in this case) cocky, Sony-sized-ego'd help.
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2-22-2008 @ 8:41PM
VOS said...
This shit has got to end. I don't want my gameplay to be lacking features that the PSTurd or PC version will have. On one hand, the developer should tighten up their product and make it fit within the file size limit. And on the other, MS should increase the file size. If you don't have a hard drive by now, you shouldn't be owning a 360. But then again if MS keeps making skus like this, they are only adding fuel to the fire. With this generation of consoles, a hard drive should be a standard.
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2-22-2008 @ 8:43PM
VOS said...
This shit has got to end. I don't want my gameplay to be lacking features that the PSTurd or PC version will have. On one hand, the developer should tighten up their product and make it fit within the file size limit. And on the other, MS should increase the file size. If you don't have a hard drive by now, you shouldn't be owning a 360. But then again if MS keeps making skus like this, they are only adding fuel to the fire. With this generation of consoles, a hard drive should be a standard.
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2-22-2008 @ 8:57PM
Aaron said...
I love how X360 owners rationalize the system's limitations to themselves. It's sort of how people rationalize belief in ancient mythology.
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2-24-2008 @ 12:32AM
Xav de Matos said...
Well to be fair, this isn't a limitation on the hardware at all. This is a limitation based on the file size decision Microsoft has made.
2-22-2008 @ 10:15PM
Truckondo said...
I guess Microsoft wants the PS3 to outshine the 360. Good thing I have all current systems. This console war isn't over so Microsoft should end this gestapo crap.
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