Is Microsoft’s 50 MB Size Limit for XBLA Games Really a Bad Thing?
After seeing what Naked Sky did with Roboblitz, I realized it may be time to reevaluate my position on this topic. Using procedural texture generation software from Allegorithmic, Naked Sky was able to make a game that visually stacks up against high end Xbox games, (and even some launch titles for the 360) fit snugly within that 50mb size limit. A game of this visual quality that utilizes the Unreal 3 engine (you know, the one that powers Gears of War) would have taken at least a gig or two of disc space just a few short years ago.
So is that size limit a bad thing? My new answer is no. As larger development studios start creating games for the XBLA, that size limit will drive innovation. Better compression methods will be created, procedural textures will become standard (at least in arcade titles if not full retail titles), and developers will search for new ways to provide a rich gameplay experience in a small package. In the long run, this will affect the industry in a very positive way. Instead of larger optical discs (such as blu ray) for retail games, devs could utilize these methods to pack 25 gigs worth of game into 9 gigs worth of space. My prediction for the next console cycle (PS4, Xbox 720) is that optical discs will go the way of the dinosaur. Larger, less expensive hard drives and smaller games will take their place.
The 50mb size limit on XBLA games is not only a good thing, but could be the start of a new era of innovation in gaming.
-MIKE KURZ
December 14th, 2006 at 12:37 am
What about audio?
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December 14th, 2006 at 12:48 am
Also highly compressable - I’ve seen a few interviews with the devs of small arms where they commented on how much the audio compression techniques they were using helped them to keep the game under 50 megs.
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December 14th, 2006 at 1:09 am
[...] hentai xmen Is Microsoft ’s 50mb filesize limit for Xbox Live Arcade titles a bad thing? My response when I was first posed this question was a quick “yes”. How could it possibly be good? They’re limiting developers to a very small filesize in the age of HD gaming, and no good could possibly come of that….. or could it? iceman xmen cartoonread more | digg story [...]
December 14th, 2006 at 1:10 am
People had the same initial reaction when Nintendo 64 came out among predominantly CD based systems. Larger sizes allows for more high quality, uncompressed content. But it also allows developers to be lazy with their code. Smaller sizes forces developers to stream line the code and get rid of unnecessary items.
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December 14th, 2006 at 1:17 am
What kind of results would we see from this innovation though?
Getting smaller filesizes isn’t compelling to gamers.
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December 14th, 2006 at 1:25 am
“Getting smaller filesizes isn’t compelling to gamers”
Saving money IS compelling to gamers. With smaller file sizes, you avoid the need for larger capicity (and more expensive) optical disc formats. Had MS gone with an HD DVD drive for the 360, it would have cost as much (if not more than) the PS3. If we can manage to fit 25 gigs worth of game on 9 gigs worth of disc, everyone (manufacturers, developers, and consumers) can save some cash by sticking with standard DVD’s…. at least until the newer formats become faster, and more affordable.
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December 14th, 2006 at 1:35 am
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December 14th, 2006 at 2:01 am
Mike,
Arent’ you overlooking the fact that Procedurally generated games take too much time to generate the textures, maps etc. Saving on storage space is a good thing , but definitely not at the cost of the same games requiring Bigger and meaner graphic Cards, processors and memory !! All’s not well, if you take into account the fact that the same Gaming consoles would be able to run less graphic intense games than they otherwise would have.
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December 14th, 2006 at 2:45 am
50mb is huge look at .kkrieger a whole FPS in 96k it Crazy and looks wicked aswell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.kkrieger
also rember its the the SNES has some wicked games on it and they where like max 8mb
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December 14th, 2006 at 3:46 am
The 50MB limit is a good limitation considering the current hardware and service. The primary reason was that a game had to fit on a 64MB XBOX360 memory card. But even the hard drive will fill up with enough arcade games (sure it holds hundreds, but not thousands)… notice how you have to clear out older demos to fit new ones - if you had to clear out older arcade games you would freak out. The current system will hold all the arcades games MS will push out for this generation. (XNA is a different matter.)
So 50MB is a fitting limit for the current XBOX360.
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December 14th, 2006 at 5:13 am
Id rather the devs devote their time and efforts to creating fun games rather than licensing/creating compression tech.
Every day they spend tweaking the compression is a day that didn’t get spent tuning the gameplay.
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December 14th, 2006 at 5:15 am
Ashish,
The 360 can definately handle it though because it’s designed to run games of a much high caliber. What it’s not designed for however is to store large games, so in the case of XBLA, it’s a clever way to handle things.
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December 14th, 2006 at 6:25 am
it seems MS is not that strict on the 50MB limit, i have XLA games that are 55MB and such..
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December 14th, 2006 at 9:11 am
Sorry but this whole article was dumb. Arbitrarily placing a 50MB limit on games just so they can fit on a memory card is a very bad decision. For those of us who have hard drives, we shouldn’t be punished because Micrsoft has a dumb core pack that comes with no hard drive. I love my 360 but pretending a weakness is actually a strength is very weird. If someone wants to make their games smaller than 50MB then fine and that’s great. But with an avilable hard drive, this shouldn’t be one of the things Microsoft is forcing on people. Particularly when Sony who are normally the more draconian ones are not forcing such a small limit. This whole line of thinking strikes me as fanboysih as in the 360 has no faults.
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December 14th, 2006 at 9:38 am
Tony Jones,
I think the point was more about how good things can come from what at first glance seems like a bad thing. And the smaller size is good for people with harddrives as well because if you want to download a lot of games, you can. I think honestly the size limit isn’t only because of storage, but bandwidth. And I truly hope that if/when larger harddrives become available they up the limit a bit.
Anyway, I don’t think its fanboyism to say that it could be a good thing. Of course the arcade is flawed… some of the prices are outrageously high, and Microsoft hasn’t been delivering what they promise. But this article wasn’t about that. It was about the fact that limitations cause devs to think outside the box. I don’t know why so many people think XLBA should have large games anyway… it’s specifically geared to small, light games. If you have a game that’s larger, you can find another market for your game… like maybe for the 500MB limit Sony offers.
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December 14th, 2006 at 9:43 am
Compression technologies are very good things. One of the biggest space wasters in any system design is the optical drive. Flash memory has come a long way and the technologies to replace flash memory look even more promising. I think back to all the systems I own and it is easy to remember how many times I saw the message “disc read error”, “the disc is dirty or damaged” or “disc unreadable”. Why can’t we get rid of these moving part storage mechanisms and move on to solid-state reliability?
With the way that bandwidth is increasing and memory is improving I have to agree with this article.
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December 14th, 2006 at 10:22 am
Quoted Above=”It was about the fact that limitations cause devs to think outside the box. I don’t know why so many people think XLBA should have large games anyway… it’s specifically geared to small, light games.”
That’s cool and everything but why is Microsoft imposing their inconsistent imo vision of what an Xbox Live Arcade title is? It’s great that a small size forces someone “to think outside of the box” but as a gamer all I really care about is whether I enjoy the game or not. Best Breed engineering practices are meaningless to my enjoyment of said titles. I’m no more willing to download a 50MB game than a one Gig game. All I care about is my enjoyment of it, and I’ll definitely argue a large size game allows a developer to do different and potentially better things.
The analogy doesn’t quite fit but Micrsoft has no problem allowing large demos, tv shows, or even movies for download on their service. Not sure why games then are forced to meet such a small footprint.
Like I said, I’ve got no problem if a developer decides to limit their games to 50MB. That’s great. But on a system with a 20GB Hard Drive, it makes absolutely no sense to me to just pull out a small number like they have and make that the top end.
I love Xbox Live but I think Xbox Live Arcade hasn’t been so wonderful by comparison. The 50MB limit isn’t solely the reason of course but it doesn’t help.
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December 14th, 2006 at 10:57 am
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December 14th, 2006 at 10:58 am
“The analogy doesn’t quite fit but Micrsoft has no problem allowing large demos, tv shows, or even movies for download on their service. Not sure why games then are forced to meet such a small footprint.”
But I think a lot of people don’t actually keep that content on their consoles. So it’s not as big of a deal in terms of storage.
“Like I said, I’ve got no problem if a developer decides to limit their games to 50MB. That’s great. But on a system with a 20GB Hard Drive, it makes absolutely no sense to me to just pull out a small number like they have and make that the top end.”
Developers don’t HAVE to make games this size… just games they want on XBLA. And XBLA exists for smaller games… and not just that, but casual games… something that no one has really discussed here. I think Microsofts whole angle is to have a machine that give you a littel bit of everything… and potentially everyone could enjoy. (The price is still kind of high to accomplish that mind you… but eventually there will be drops.) And so I think XBLA was established with games like hexic in mind, as well as old ports. I think the unforseen by product of the size limit is that some devs are coming up with ways to fit games that are a bit fuller than the intended type of game.
“I love Xbox Live but I think Xbox Live Arcade hasn’t been so wonderful by comparison. The 50MB limit isn’t solely the reason of course but it doesn’t help.”
Yeah, I can agree with you that it’s not what it could be. I had higher expectations of the arcade when I first heard of it… not to mention all the unfufilled promises.
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December 14th, 2006 at 2:24 pm
The point of XBL Arcade was to have small light games at a small light cost that are easily downloaded and stored for long periods of time. Short development cycles emphasizing creative game design.
From what I have seen they have succeeded for the most part. I have half a dozen of these and they are quite entertaining. If you want to make something more complex I am sure you can just put it on a CD.
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December 14th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
“640 KB are enough for everyone”
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December 16th, 2006 at 11:51 am
[...] What the geek raised an interesting question yesterday: is the 50MB size limit for Xbox Live Arcade games a bad thing? The first and obvious answer is yes. After all, more space equates to bigger, better games, right? Conventionally, the idea makes sense. Look deeper though, and the question isn’t quite so cut and dry. Yes, developers can do more with more space, but constraining their space forces them to find ways around it. Look at a game like RoboBlitz. It runs on the Unreal Engine and squeezes in under 50MB. What the Geek cites procedural generation as the next big thing in game design, and we have to agree. Honestly, it’s something we’ve put some thought into recently. [...]
December 16th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
You Crazy? 50MB ain’t good. If there was a larger limit, imagine how much better RoboBlitz would’ve looked, played and it would’ve been a larger game in the sense of levels.
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