Gaming Signal: Does the size of your XBox Arcade game matter?

Does the size of your XBox Arcade game matter?

In case folks didn't know (I was one of them), XBLA (XBox Live Arcade) games are size restricted to 50 MB. This may change over time as MS decides to release a larger hard drive and broadband speeds increase, but currently that is the limitation on the games. So XBox360Fanboy has a post that discusses that fact and what it may mean to developers to games.

I can't help but agree with them on this topic, and point out that there was a time where we didn't have multiple gigabyte hard drives and huge amounts of memory to stores stuff in. Games focused on entertaining versus having photo realistic graphics. I also think that this limitation really will make developers think about the content they are producing. I have played a couple demos for Assault Heroes and Small Arms and I have to say that they look fantastic. Furthermore, the game Roboblitz uses the Unreal engine for its graphics. These games are intended to be arcade type of titles not deep role playing or strategy based titles. Should those be made? I am going to say yes - can they be made? I don't know, but I bet there is a developer out there somewhere investigating that.

The bottom line here is that forcing a size limitation should have the same effect that occurs when a console has been available for several years. Developers start becoming very creative with what they have to work with. Look at the games that came out this last year for the PS2 - Final Fantasy 12 looks absolutely gorgeous on that platform, and the same thing can be said, only more so, for Okami. The restriction is intended to be something good for the consumer which means that the downloads don't take an extraordinarily long time.