
As part of the "steady progress", Edery confirmed word that they've raised the XBLA's size limit to a hefty 350MB after they've been "listening to our partners, listening to our customers to try and get a feel for what's right." The raise in file size limit is, what we think overall to be a good thing for the market that will probably allow richer, deeper and more involved XBLA games. We agree with Edery, it's just "good for the ecosystem."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-20-2008 @ 1:19PM
Tony said...
Good. I was thinking a doubling up to 300 would have been fine, but this is even better. It still fits on the larger memory card, so everyone is happy.
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5-20-2008 @ 1:22PM
Jay900 said...
thank god for this!
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5-20-2008 @ 1:30PM
CharleyTony said...
lets hope that 350mb is enough for a xbla portal release !!
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5-20-2008 @ 1:41PM
Dom said...
charleytony
I was just about to say Portal too! w00t!
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5-20-2008 @ 1:42PM
Scott said...
They should have made it 360 MB for the corny joke.
yuk yuk yuk
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5-20-2008 @ 1:43PM
Orenthol said...
It's... a start.
I think the limit, at the very least, if there has to be a god damned limit, it should be 700MB.
But a limit is absurd. Especially when XBOX Originals can be 5GB+, and when the most direct competition (the PSN) has no limits at all, and allows for retail-quality games to be released openly on it.
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5-20-2008 @ 1:47PM
Andrew said...
The problem is if there was no limit, all the people who bought an Xbox 360 ARCADE would be screwed.
5-20-2008 @ 1:54PM
PeacefulOutrage said...
I think limits can be a good and a bad thing. I have over 40 XBLA games on my 20GB HDD now, along with videos, themes, gamerpics, demos, and my regular game saves (of which I have quite a few). While I would want to have the choice for longer, more involved games on the platform, I don't want a lot of bloated games taking up any more space than necessary. I mean even Ikaruga is under 50MB, IIRC, and that game has very high production values, from the tutorial, the graphics, gameplay and sound.
5-20-2008 @ 2:04PM
PeacefulOutrage said...
@Andrew
That's not true. The people who bought an arcade system can upgrade at any time. I have a premium system, but I still bought a memory card. People aren't stupid. If they want to watch videos from the marketplace or get a game that is too large, they should just get a message that says that they don't have enough storage space. It never stopped people from buying 4 - 6 PS and PS2 memory cards. And PS2 memory cards are still $25 for 8MB.
I can understand if they paid the same amount as the other systems and were screwed, or were never given the option of upgrading, but that isn't the case.
5-20-2008 @ 2:52PM
Mike Sylvester said...
@PeacefulOutrage
XLBA's Ikaruga is bloatware compared to the Dreamcast version which weighed in at around 18MB.
I'd like to know if this limit increase is too little or too late for the SSF2HDR team to take advantage of.
5-20-2008 @ 3:16PM
BananaBoat said...
Andrew is probably correct. If a game is only 300mb, that means you can pack a hell of alot more of them onto the lowest 360 Harddrive size in circulation. That is probably microsoft's reasoning behind the ridiculously small size that XBLA games are allowed to be.
All the small size does, is send business over to the PSN and to Steam. When you can put out a game with no restrictions on PSN, or Steam (on the PC), why would you limit yourself to developing a game that needs to be that small?
Anyone else not a huge fan of XBLA games? They all seem like games I can play for free on one of those flash arcade websites. Except for a few exceptions like Carcassone (or however you spell it) and uhh...lord...Galaxy Wars? (The one that the 360 came with a demo of)
5-20-2008 @ 1:45PM
PeacefulOutrage said...
I think this is awesome. It should be up to developers to decide who they want to market to. Anyone can upgrade their system if they want to, but they know how many memory cards are out in the wild.
Also games which are standard length like Castlevania will be much easier to produce for people looking for a meatier game experience with more robust graphics and sound.
I'm tired of developers complaining how much it costs to make games for this generation. Look at PSP games being turned into PS2 games, and all of the DS games that really could be released for a home console. Their budgets are usually around a couple million dollars. How about PS2 and Saturn games? I'd love to see some more games like PAA: OtRPoD. Why can't a new SNK vs Capcom, Powerstone, Rayman or even better, RPG be developed and released for XBLA?
There are a number of games that are suited for arcade, because of their obscurity. This way they don't have to worry about being removed from the shelf after a few months or not having any copies at all when customers do want to buy. Everyparty may not have been a big seller in Japan, but if MS released it worldwide through arcade, I know that I'm not the only person who may have bought it. Look at Scene it!, Cataan, and Carcassonne. They seem to be doing well, and there aren't many games like it available.
Anyway, thanks for letting me rant.
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5-20-2008 @ 1:45PM
Kevin Gass said...
Oh god the last time they increased the size limit, we didnt hear from Castle Crashers for a whole year!!!
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5-20-2008 @ 2:08PM
TORO said...
Or maybe they did this because of Castle Crashers? Behemoth declares CC is done and sent to certification, couple days later MS announces increase in storage.
I'd be interested to know how big CC will be ;)
5-20-2008 @ 1:50PM
Maverick Saturn said...
Celebrations all round!
A toast to Micro ^^
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5-20-2008 @ 1:50PM
iFester said...
This is starting to feel like and auction. Can I get a 400 cap, 400 - 500 cap... 1g. We have 1g cap now.
Seriously, it's a good thing as we'll benefit from better games; provided they stay in the $10-20 price range.
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5-20-2008 @ 1:52PM
ZenGaijin said...
Why even have a limit at all? I mean the PS3 has amazing download games that have no such limits on what makes them amazing.
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5-20-2008 @ 1:58PM
Scott said...
Because of the 360 Arcade and the need to fit XBLA games on the 512MB memory card.
I agree though, I'd prefer to see no limit...and the 360 Arcade possibly eliminated.
5-20-2008 @ 2:15PM
PeacefulOutrage said...
@Scott
There is no reason to eliminate the arcade system. What MS should do, though, is allow developers to release games at any size they choose. The developers know how many people they are alienating when they release their games, and since it would be their profit, it should be up to them. People can always by a HDD, so even 512 shouldn't be the limit in that respect. If I was an arcade owner, the only way I would cry foul is if MS were giving incentives to create larger games to force people to upgrade their hardware. Otherwise I see no problem.
5-20-2008 @ 2:22PM
Etchasketchist said...
Make bigger memory cards.