Xbox Live Arcade Size Limits Limiting Capcom Games?

While interviewing Capcom Producer Ben Judd for our Bionic Commando: Rearmed preview today,1up learned that not all versions of this hearty downloadable remake of the NES classic are being created equal. When the game hits this spring, the PlayStation Network version (as well as the PC incarnation) will have higher-res textures than the Xbox Live Arcade version. Blame Live Arcade's 150MB limit on file sizes, Judd explained.

[mullet]

Ha. Oh man.

[Storm23]

Yep. Ha.

[marinelife9]

Why does microsoft try to put everything into a box?

It seems like they are always trying to put limits on everything from their operating systems to their game consoles.

Don't they realize that some peoples imaginations are bigger and more creative than their own?

[Expy]

Microsoft: How bought splitting the game across files! That worked for Lost Odyssey across 4 discs!

Just a bit of humour :P

[AzaziL]

Why does M$ like to shoot itself in the foot. For damn sakes, if they allow demos that are more then a gig, why sacrifice on games by capping them at 150MB. Idiocy at it's greatest, guess Live can't sacrifice the extra bandwidth without crashing again.

[mullet]

http://i196.photobucket.com...

[Rockwallaby]

understand why they didn't put the hard drive in standard especially since it was standard in the original.

[Ri0tSquad]

Big load of BS.

[name]

Thank god for sony making it 2 gb for psn. Why is the XBL arcade limited to 150 mb? It's obvious it can handle more I'm just wondering.

[Ri0tSquad]

Theres demos that are over 2gbs. Why not XBLA games?

[DRUDOG]

2gb?!? There isn't any cap on what developers can do. All Sony has ever said is if it takes a game longer to download than takin' your happy a$$ to the store to buy it, it's too big.

What's to disagree with? Excerpt from Sony's presentation from GDC:

Some other points made in the presentation: unlike XBLA, there is no size limit to the games developed for PSN. However, if a gamer "can go to the store faster" than it would take to download the title, it probably isn't ideal for digital distribution. Also, in stark contrast to the suspiciously slow approval process at XBLA, Sony will allow games to be published as quickly as the Thursday after it completes QA approval.

Read more here: http://www.ps3fanboy.com/20...

[crck]

You know those 512 mb cards they sell for like $40.

[Superiorrior]

Sony works with the developers in trying to lower the megabyte count, if it's just too unreasonable to do so, Sony will release there demos in full, they've stated this before, Sony is always developer friendly.

[VMAN_01]

You would think paying for XBL would get you the best possible qualty for downloadable games well this is just another way ms trick people because its not like the average consumer is gonna know that there xbla is capped at 150mb file sizes and that quality would get downgraded.

[Silver Bull3t]

...since you don't need a GOLD acct. to download XBLA titles that's not an issue.

[gamesR4fun]

you cant say that cause one game looks good they all should fit the same mold wth
then saying that they cant program nice...
tho its Capcom and prob true you really think you should be saying it?

Man they keep up like this and they wont have that little number gap they like to brag up for much longer

[BrianC6234]

I can't believe the comment made by that Microslop perv. You want your best version on the superior system of course. And that's the PS3. The Xbox 1.5 just isn't going to be able to keep up with the awesome PS3.

[PopEmUp]

When you talking about quality over quantity then you can't go pass Microsoft

[kevoncox]

Yet none of you have a 360.
The cap is there because core uses have a Memory card capped at 256.
You can't make a 2 gig xbla game is everyone cannot purchase it.

Lets talk facts. The games on PSN are nothign special.
PSn which is cap free and doesn't have the diffuclt qualift assurance that xbox live has, still has less games and either don't get demos or get them later than the xbox versions.

So i will take lower textures on an arcade game compared to having demos on ALLLLLLLLL arcade games and most retail games.

Wait PSn doesn't even have cross game messaging...why am I arguing with you guys... Bash MS for capping arcade games but ignore the fact that when you're in a game you are dead to the outside world.

[roybatty]

1st the defeat of HD DVD is a win for MS...(ahahahahahahahaha!) and now this retarded post. Having a cap and paying to play online is somehow better than a F R E E, open, uncapped online service.
I'm sorry but your post is sad, you clearly should be in the open zone, that's were the blind fan boys go. Don't let the door hit you in the 4ss on the way out.

EDIT- Oh, I almost forgot, Warhawk, Pixel Junk Monsters, Stardust HD are better than any XBLA game.....and you know it.

[Trick Nolte]

Since M$ has to "draw the line somewhere"... I encourage and welcome all devs who'd rather push the line than draw it to pop your games on my standardized PS3 hard drive. Theres PLENTY of room :P

Thank You and God Bless

Vote Obabma

[titntin]

The cap is a unfortunate side affect of having machines without hard drives..it means dowloadable games have to be created with a memory card in mind.
It was a decision that was ultimately going to cost them, but it does mean they can market a non HD machine at a lower price point and try to attract the casual market. I don't know how succesful that has been (how many 'arcades' do they sell) but I suspect that strategically it was good move and if the only downside is a few multi games that re a bit gimpped on the 360, the marketting teams can live with that.
As a 360 owner with a 'full' machine though, you'd have to be a bit dissapointed with getting a worse version of game simply because of the arcade sku.
I think offering the Hard Driveless versions of the 360 gave a short term bennifit thats largely already been seen, but will continue to give long term drawbacks (limited game sizes, lack of HD caching, even non multiplayer for Burnout on non HD machines) that we haven't seen the last off. Somewhere in MS, I suspect people will be regretting that move.

[GodsHand]

It would be fuuny if the game was only 151MB, and Micrsoft still would hinder the textures.

[GodsHand]

Did anyone get the video off the PSN, besides the nice looking video, at the end, it says if you beat the game, you unlock a skin for the upcoming Bionic Com. game, I think it was the Nathan skin from Resistance game.

[judd]

"Capcom Producer, Ben Judd." I did a double take because that's my name, haha. Ben Judd. Makes me want to go google my name to see what others are out there.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I think Microsoft should increase the download limit. Either that or offer a discounted price on a small hard drive if you have a core XBox.

[DJ]

But PSN allows for bigger games than Xbox Live? Damn, Microsoft needs to wake up. What exactly are those huge annual fees paying for again?

[Silver Bull3t]

multi-part downloads? Just split the title into 2 or more chunks to bypass the 150MB limit?

(...or just get rid of the stupid limit)

[Doctor Strange]

The caps needs to go but to not alienate those without a hard drive I'm not sure if they will.

[I Call 9MM]

In the days of cheap 1 and 2 gigabyte memory cards (like SD) that sell for around 10-20 dollars, and with much larger cards available at decent prices (I've seen 4 gig cards go for like 30-40 dollars), Microsoft continues to gouge the consumer with overpriced, small, proprietary pieces of crap that only hold like 256-512 megs of ram (I own one of the 64 meg cards, which where released when 512 was standard.