XBLA Size Limit Increased

[Norse]

Luke Smith from 1UP (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3156520) reports that the size limit on XBLA has been altered:

The Xbox Live Arcade file size was capped at 50 MB to accommodate consumers who purchased the hard drive-less Xbox 360 Core SKU (those consumers had to use one of Microsoft's memory cards). Under condition of anonymity, sources revealed to 1UP that the file size for Xbox Live Arcade titles has been increased from 50 MB to 250 MB and with Microsoft's approval, that size can be expanded to 450 MB. When asked for comment on the reported change to file size, Microsoft said, "We do not comment on rumor and speculation and so we can not confirm that rumor. Aside from the exception we granted for 'Castlevania: Symphony of the Night,' we have not announced any plans to alter the file size standard for Xbox Live Arcade games. However, adjusting the size limit is certainly an option in the future, and as always, we are listening to feedback both from gamers and developers on what will provide the best user experience. Whatever choice we make, we will hold a position that provides for the best possible Xbox Live Arcade gameplay experience."

Editor's Note:Thanks to Siraris for a similar submission.

Not officially confirmed yet, but it sounds likely. A 250MB limit sounds good to me.

[Kem0sabe]

Hopefully we could get some Sega Saturn games on live. I would love to see Dragon Force, one of the best strategy games i have ever played on any platform.

[bapenguin]

I figured they'd bump it to 250 officially since htere will be the 256 MB memory card.

Honestly this dissapoints me. The stuff developers were able to squeeze out of 50mb was awesome. It forces them to create streamlined code and streamlined assets for a very tight experience. The bigger the limit, the lazier you can be, the sloppier it ends up being.

[menage]

Honestly this dissapoints me. The stuff developers were able to squeeze out of 50mb was awesome. It forces them to create streamlined code and streamlined assets for a very tight experience. The bigger the limit, the lazier you can be, the sloppier it ends up being.

Maybe, but if the games sucked like they sucked lately, I'd rather have an 250 mb SoTN (if I didn't own it already)

[Gorvi]

I would say this screws over those people that have only a core system, but really, does anyone actually own a core?

[Johan]

Honestly this disapoints me. The stuff developers were able to squeeze out of 50mb was awesome. It forces them to create streamlined code and streamlined assets for a very tight experience. The bigger the limit, the lazier you can be, the sloppier it ends up being.

That is EXACTLY how I feel about it.

I don't need a bloated Arcade game of up to 450 Mb on a HDD of just 12 usable Gb.

I don't like this. Occasional exceptions, like SotN, are okay. As an overall policy, it's not...:(

[score]

I would say this screws over those people that have only a core system, but really, does anyone actually own a core?

What's the price on the new memory card? aren't they better off just making the hard drives cheaper so people will buy those instead?

[Gorvi]

What's the price on the new memory card? aren't they better off just making the hard drives cheaper so people will buy those instead?

That's exactly what they need to do. The 20GB HDD needs to be $50, with a 50-60GB HDD released at $100. At least that would make more sense.

[J3DI]

I would say this screws over those people that have only a core system, but really, does anyone actually own a core?

A core is only a core, until a HDD is added... I seriously doubt that anyone owns JUST a core system with no means to save data. Sales clerks would go ape shit, they are always trying to push accessories on unsuspecting victims - in this case though it would be okay.

[Samurai Joe]

I figured they'd bump it to 250 officially since htere will be the 256 MB memory card.

Honestly this dissapoints me. The stuff developers were able to squeeze out of 50mb was awesome. It forces them to create streamlined code and streamlined assets for a very tight experience. The bigger the limit, the lazier you can be, the sloppier it ends up being.

I also agree with you on this. I was surprised by the quality of some titles. Anyway, hopefully things stay interesting.

[Johan]

Slight tangent/threadjack: Anyone know how people will be able to transfer game saves from their 20 Gb. HDD to a potentially larger one? I mean, with only 12 usable Gigs, you could potentially fill that with a bunch of saves and 30 or more Arcade titles of larger size (I own 26 titles myself).

I know we can redownload our purchased items from Live (oh man, will that take a looooong time for me. I have a ton). How about game saves?

I have an XSATA, which allows for a backup image of the entire HDD, but does not, to my knowledge, allow individual files to be swapped to another HDD for the 360. What the hell would happen to all of my game saves?

Grrrr.....

[bapenguin]

Slight tangent/threadjack: Anyone know how people will be able to transfer game saves from their 20 Gb. HDD to a potentially larger one? I mean, with only 12 usable Gigs, you could potentially fill that with a bunch of saves and 30 or more Arcade titles of larger size (I own 26 titles myself).

I know we can redownload our purchased items from Live (oh man, will that take a looooong time for me. I have a ton). How about game saves?

I have an XSATA, which allows for a backup image of the entire HDD, but does not, to my knowledge, allow individual files to be swapped to another HDD for the 360. What the hell would happen to all of my game saves?

Grrrr.....

My guess is 1 of 3 things will happen.

1) The new hard drive will have a "docking" port to dock your old HD onto and allow you to transfer between.

2) The spring update brings on the addition of "XBox live storage" for Gold members that allows you to upload/share saved games and data.

3) You are screwed.

[Johan]

My guess is 1 of 3 things will happen.

1) The new hard drive will have a "docking" port to dock your old HD onto and allow you to transfer between.

Extra manufacturing cost...I'd guess that won't happen. Plus, the ability to transfer saves so easily between HDDs could potentially gum up the whole Achievement thingie (people cheating by trading/buying/selling game saves that are not locked to specific HDDs).

2) The spring update brings on the addition of "XBox live storage" for Gold members that allows you to upload/share saved games and data.

Extra cost for MS means this probably won't happen, but it would be more secure in terms of cheating on Achievement points (see #1 above), so perhaps.

3) You are screwed.

Quite damn likely. This is what I expect. :(

[Telefrog]

Slight tangent/threadjack: Anyone know how people will be able to transfer game saves from their 20 Gb. HDD to a potentially larger one? I mean, with only 12 usable Gigs, you could potentially fill that with a bunch of saves and 30 or more Arcade titles of larger size (I own 26 titles myself).

I know we can redownload our purchased items from Live (oh man, will that take a looooong time for me. I have a ton). How about game saves?

I have an XSATA, which allows for a backup image of the entire HDD, but does not, to my knowledge, allow individual files to be swapped to another HDD for the 360. What the hell would happen to all of my game saves?

Grrrr.....

I've asked this question a few times on this board and people seem convinced that you can just swap the saves over using a memory card. The bad news is that some game saves (IE Perfect Dark Zero) WILL NOT transfer. Also, there is an issue where re-downloading add-ons to games will cause your saves to corrupt if the save files incorporate the add-on stuff.

I suppose to most people these won't be huge issues, but they're annoyances to me.

[Headcase]

A higher memory limit is good

Shitty companies deciding to make what is essentially a 20MB game and add 200MB of unnecessarily high-resolution textures, etc, in a vain attempt to make the game appear more valuable is bad.

[ilian]

Im working on an XBLA title and havnt heard this yet.. But, I do believe it, and I think its really good news.

[Corngood]

I know we can redownload our purchased items from Live (oh man, will that take a looooong time for me. I have a ton). How about game saves?

I've never really thought about this issue before, but it would certainly suck if you even had to buy a memory card to do it. What they _should_ do is allow you do copy ~400MB at a time through system memory by swapping drives, which is more (and much faster) than any memory card anyway.

Swapping 30 times to transfer 12 gigs would be pretty weak, but I think most people would just move a couple hundred megs of saves.

[miah]

Makes me want to upgrade the HDD in my 360..

[Metal Jesus]

I think this is a good idea. Most of these XBLA games are too simple one trick ponies. Perhaps with a larger file size, we'll be able to get a bit more complex and interesting games on there.

[anakin876]

I bet they say " now you have 2 hard drives! - isn't that great?!?!?" Just like when someone from microsoft suggested that if a user was running out of room for downloadable videos and what not they could jsut get another HD and swap them in and out.

[violentp]

I have to admit I like the idea. I agree with the whole concept that smaller amounts of space require more streamlined programming and whatnot. But then I start to think about what we have available on Live Arcade now, and I ain't really impressed.

We have a few gems but mostly ports. And even the gems aren't really programming miracles. Therefore, if we are getting ok games with 50 megs and an inability to expand, then my thinking says, 50 megs with 200 meg extra working space allows for ok games with an ability to expand to a better game. 4x potentially.

And if it turns out that the games get worse due to the extra space, then we have retards making our games.

[motor]

As to transfering files: There was always a plan to allow a person to allocate a chunk of hard-drive space on their machine on the network that the 360 could dump encrypted files to. I don't know why that ended up not happening (it would solve the hard-drive issue emensely). But they might go with that approach for transfers.

[TheBrainKills]

Why not have a docking port on top of the new drives so that you can use both at the same time? No need to swap any files, just add it and your done.

[anakin876]

Why not have a docking port on top of the new drives so that you can use both at the same time? No need to swap any files, just add it and your done.
oooh - that would be cool. Good idea. Somebody call Microsoft...or do we already have a plant reading this thread?

[51|RandoM]

Oh yeah, more space automatically means shitty games. All of the games we've played the past two generations prove that, since all of them had more space to work with than the cartridge days and all of them sucked.

Okami sucked, I wish they would've fit it into a 50mb footprint, it would've been so much better, same goes for FF:XII, can you imagine how great that game would've been in a 50MB footprint? Shame capcom/clover and squarenix have such lazy ass programmers. :rolleyes:

in other words, stop being so damned cynical.

I'm happy for the space increase. Maybe now there'll be stuff on XBLA I actually find worth paying for.

[51|RandoM]

oooh - that would be cool. Good idea. Somebody call Microsoft...or do we already have a plant reading this thread?


...as long as it comes with its own powersupply. In other words: Isn't going to happen.

[ElectricMonk]

The lack of hard drive is really crippling their online ideas.