Now that I've got the heavy news out of the way, I'd like to take a minute and discuss the announcement that Microsoft made at GDC regarding the relaxation of Xbox Live Arcade file size limitations and the increased storage capacity Memory Unit. As you may have read in my news article last week, Microsoft is increasing the allowed file size of Xbox Live Arcade games from 50MB to 150MB and also releasing a new Memory Unit that can accommodate 512MB worth of data (instead of just 64MB like the currently available Memory Units). The idea is to give developers of Xbox Live Arcade games a little more latitude and provide Xbox Live Arcade games more portability.
If you ask my colleague Associate Console Editor Patrick Joynt what this means, though, he'll tell you that it's just another nail in the smaller developers' collective coffin. His argument is that, with meteorically rising development costs, the 50MB limit served as a safety valve to keep the costs of creating Xbox Live Arcade games small, and therefore the increase in size may squelch smaller developers who lack the assets to fill out 150MB.
Microsoft has been working very closely with its Arcade developers, and a lot of the feedback gleaned from that relationship pointed to a bottleneck in which too much developer manpower was being spent trying to compress games to fit the 50MB limit.. Less time spent smashing games into smaller file sizes means less money spent overall and, hopefully, more time spent actually building quality games. Microsoft still expects most games to remain relatively small (within 75MB to 100MB), but feels the opportunity to create larger games using higher-resolution art assets (and more of them) is essential to keep developers churning out Xbox Live Arcade titles. While we can't really see the effects of this change in the latest Xbox Live Arcade release of TMNT 1989 Arcade (which clocks in at only 44MB), Castlevania: Symphony of the Night would never have made it under 50MB, and I think that reason alone is enough to hail the increase in XBLA file size as completely rad.
Turtle Power!
Speaking of TMNT , I don't know how many of you remember it from the days we dwelled in the dank pits called "arcades," but I do, and fondly. I remember one day when my friends and I ponied up at least six bucks each in order to beat this game, and now I can play it to my heart's content for even less (the game costs 400 Microsoft Points, or $5). Fellow Associate Console Editor Sterling McGarvey and I tested out the multiplayer this morning over the Xbox Live network and found it to be both responsive and just as fun as we remembered.
That isn't to say there aren't some downsides, because TMNT has a nasty limitation in that you can only start a multiplayer game with 20 lives per player (not even close to the amount you'd need if you suck as much as we do). Also, TMNT continues a trend that scars my Achievement-loving heart by offering literally pointless Achievements. If there is one thing that ratchets up my agro past a point that I'm comfortable with, it's seeing the familiar Achievement announcement pop on the screen only to be utterly disappointed to discover that I've received no Achievement Points whatsoever (as demonstrated in TMNT by the dubious "In the Dark" Achievement - earned by falling into a manhole five times).
Fortunately, regardless of the annoyance of pointless Achievements, Microsoft seems to be providing us with plenty of other reasons to celebrate (in addition to the 360's continued domination of fun in general, that is). We can all look forward to playing bigger and better games on Xbox Live Arcade with an even larger community of gamers over the expanded Live community. All in all, I'd say that's enough to keep me a proud Xbot until at least my next column.
