Report: Bigger Games for Live Arcade
We'll find out soon enough if download size is something that's holding back Microsoft's downloadable-game initiative.
If it seems that Xbox Live Arcade games come down the pipe faster than the demos that populate the Xbox Live Marketplace, that's because Microsoft has enforced a size limit on Arcade games - until now.
Symphony of the Night is due soon1UP reports that Microsoft is going to increase the size of Xbox Live Arcade games, from the current 50 MB to 250 MB. Microsoft will reportedly also allow downloads up to 450 MB as a last resort.
The restrictions were originally brought in so that owners of the Xbox 360 Core system, which lacks a hard drive, would still be able to download games to 64 MB memory cards. Along with bigger hard drives, Microsoft is believed to be working on more capacious memory cards.
Microsoft refused to comment directly on the report, but it did tell 1UP that, "adjusting the size limit is certainly an option in the future".
One game that will benefit immediately is Konami's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which is due on the Xbox Live Arcade this winter. The original PlayStation game was way over the 50 MB limit, but even series designer Koji Igarashi admitted recently in an interview with us that he's impressed with the compressed allowed by new technologies.
Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo
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