XBLA can't handle games over 2GB

By Robert Purchese Published 25 September, 2009

Microsoft clarifies as rulebook retires.

Microsoft may overlook the size of most Xbox Live Arcade games today, but the company says there is a 2GB limit the system inherently cannot break.

Scott Austin, director of digital games at MS, told IGN as much at the Tokyo Game Show this week.

His comments come after titles like Shadow Complex (1GB), Watchmen: The End is Nigh (1.2GB) and Red Alert 3 add-on Commander's Challenge (2GB) bent the rules to breaking point.

Those rules once restricted XBLA games to 50MB of space, but when Microsoft made exceptions to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Bionic Commando Rearmed and Super Street Fighter II, others sensibly followed.

Xbox Live Arcade has gained serious momentum thanks to its recent Summer of Arcade promotions, which have delivered titles like Braid, Castle Crashers and Trials HD. The result has been support from big-name studios, chiefly Epic, which released the brilliant Shadow Complex this summer.

And even with a hard cap of 2GB, Xbox Live Marketplace now has a Games on Demand area that can cope with full-scale Xbox 360 digital distribution. Microsoft has been quick to future-proof its golden goose.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (36) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • wizlon #1 2 years ago

    "Microsoft has been quick to future-proof its golden goose." Well, Microsoft, if it is truly a Golden Goose then don't follow the fable and slay it through your unreasonably high prices.

  • Dizzy #2 2 years ago

    2GB is pretty high for XBLA games. i don't really want XBLA to turn into over-produced, full of cutscenes, bloated games. It is the platform for small-is-beautiful stuff.

  • GamerG #3 2 years ago

    what a load of nonsense

    Games on demand are 6 or 7 gigs so why would there be a limit in XBLA games when all it is is a different window on the dashboard

  • Toothball #4 2 years ago

    Seems reasonable. You'd think that 2 gig should be far more than enough for Arcade games, given that they used to be only 50 meg. Any bigger and they should really be putting them on a disc, or releasing through Games on Demand.
    Edited by 1 at 25/09/09 @ 09:10

  • CreepinJesus #5 2 years ago

    I'm glad there's a 2GB limit, but a the same time I'm annoyed it's as high as 2GB. These arcade games are meant to be tiny 'pick up and play' games! Battlefield 1943 is pretty much as far as I'd go with an arcade game...

  • menage #6 2 years ago

    Maybe it's weird that it's called arcade at this point, but hell, I don't get the complaining. I'd rather play Shadow Complex than Paper Boy.
    Edited by 1 at 25/09/09 @ 09:20

  • dpb135 #7 2 years ago

    GOD uses a different structure to XBLA thats why it supports higher gb games. Surprise EG didnt report that bit to

  • penhalion #8 2 years ago

    @GamerG

    Because of the way the content is stored and served. Games on demand is streaming what is in effect a signed disk image down to your console. The structure that manages arcade games does a lot more than that and is used by a lot more people. The hard limit is set in place so that the system can serve the maximum amount of people without slowing to a crawl.

  • Beek4257 #9 2 years ago

    Watchmen? Well that's 1,2 GB down the drain then.

  • Sniper_007 #10 2 years ago

    I've got to agree here, 2Gb is a ridiculously large limit to remain in the spirit of what XBLA originally stood for!!

    As long as the focus remains on small, gameplay focused games (such as the recent Shadow Complex, Trials HD, Splosion Man and even Marvel Vs Capcom 2), all with free demos then I won't be able to resist paying a visit each week to try the next "gem" :)

    Don't get me wrong, the ability to download larger games still has a place and if MS would just lower the price a little for the GoD stuff then I'd most likely consider downloading a couple on there too!!

  • buggrit #11 2 years ago

    2GB is the limit for a the size of a single file on a FAT32 file system
    4GB minus 1 byte actually. 2GB is the limit for FAT16.

  • hidden_asbestos #12 2 years ago

    int32 strikes again!

  • Notez #13 2 years ago

    I think there's an inherent problem in this limit as well, even though it has been quite clear that the 50MB limit was way too small. Now that the limit is 2GB and Microsoft picks the games for the service, does it mean that production values need to be ramped up to fill that space? Probably not if you ask Microsoft now, but it will be interesting to see what the distribution of new releases is in a few years in terms of size.

    Bad news for indie developers?

  • Canyarion #14 2 years ago

    I wonder if the size restrictions for the Wii have been changed, now that you can download to and play from an SD card.

    And 1GB for Shadow Complex? Wow...

  • SL33PY #15 2 years ago

    Someone once said: "640K ought to be enough for anybody." I guess someone at Microsoft said "2G ought to be enough for any XBLA game."

  • TheJuriel #16 2 years ago

    1Gb should be plenty of space, and really, I'd prefer arcade games be smaller than that. I really don't want XBLA games to veer towards overly high production costs.

  • Retroid #17 2 years ago

    A high ceiling (and 2gb is pretty high) is good because it means there shouldn't be much problem with trying to squeeze games in to fit.

    XBLA / PSN is my favourite feature of this generation because it means games which would've died deaths at retail have a decent chance of making cash again; no distribution costs beyond bandwidth and, by and large, games stay there long past the point they would've disappeared off shelves.

  • darm #18 2 years ago

    Fat32 limit is 4gb. It's not related.
    Edited by 1 at 25/09/09 @ 11:02

  • Moribundman #19 2 years ago

    Whats with all this "only" and "limited" BS? These are small non-retail games, and I think it's great we're getting serious developers and big names on there. More than 2GB and you are, in effect, getting GOD and not a budget independent/smaller project.

    If there was a real problem, I'm sure they'd create a new category/stream whereby devs can release fully fledged (but not previously retail distributed) games directly through GOD.

    For fuck's sake, if you're making a 6-10GB game why the hell aren't you releasing it on a DVD in the first place?!

    Sam & Max, Monkey Island, Splosion Man, Trials & Shadow Complex are all AAA retail-quality titles that are all well under 2GB. THAT is precisely what XBLA should be encouraging more and more of.

    And they should dial down the pisspoor 80s quality arcade conversions that are no better than WAP/JAVA versions. If I can play Frogger et al for free online or on my phone, why do I want to play a pixellated mess on a 40" screen?!

  • Skurmedel #20 2 years ago

    Shadow Complex was the best gigabyte I've ever filled my tiny 360 harddrive with. But yeah, when they start reaching 3 GB one might wonder if they qualify.

  • Rubarack #21 2 years ago

    Given the excellence of Shadow Complex I can see the potential for very large file sizes on games which still work better in the context of XBLA. I think the real stumbling point for MS is that any Arcade trial is designed to hold the whole game and can be easily unlocked in a few seconds. Sending out 8gb demos on a regular basis would require a much heftier infrastructure.

  • Markusdragon #22 2 years ago

    Lets' face it, if you're making a game that's over 2GB, you really should be releasing it on a physical medium and not exclusively over a small-games service.

  • Oceadge #23 2 years ago

    I agree, they should have stuck to the 50Mb limit for Arcade games and release bigger games either on the GOD service or on a physical disc. Especially with the 360's tiny hard drives.

  • Alkeno #24 2 years ago

    It seemed that XBLA was going to be the home of small-sized projects that would fit on 50MB... But big developments started taking place (SSFIIHDR) and huge have followed (Shadow Complex, Trials HD...). They can't get much bigger or they will get into retail territory... so 2GB seems large enough and future proof.

    In any case, most XBLA games shouldn't be getting anywhere near that mark (or even 10% of it...).

  • Xerx3s #25 2 years ago

    "Games on demand are 6 or 7 gigs so why would there be a limit in XBLA games when all it is is a different window on the dashboard"

    What you may experience and what is actually under the hood are usually two completely different things.

  • Grayvern #26 2 years ago

    50mb was always silly. It's easily possible for indie game makers to produce stuff in the hundreds of megabytes. Games like castle crashers and braid are 3 times the limit. Arcade was meant to foster small developers of quirky projects.

    The home made one man stuff has xna so why not let games on demand fly more freely?
    Edited by 2 at 25/09/09 @ 17:57

  • Shikasama #27 2 years ago

    If this news post was announcing that Microsoft were going to enforce the 50mb cap in the future, instead of all of the 'OMG 2GB is too much space!' (which is ridiculous), it would be full of 'OMG 50mb isn't enough space!'

  • Grayvern #28 2 years ago

    indeed

  • Retroid #29 2 years ago

    It used to be 50mb because the original memory cards were 64mb, so, a few saved games, your 360 profile, an XBLA game on a memory card.

    But then (IMO) the positive pressure exerted by PSN having no file size limit has kept pushing the limit higher and higher with the exceptions mentioned in the article making it harder and harder to justify.

    Hurrah for that competition! Even though several of my favourite XBLA games were 50mb or below I'm glad they now have the option of larger stuff. So long as it's just for the sake of it.

  • Sharzam #30 2 years ago

    The original plan and why was 50 mb was because they wanted everyone to use the arcade, even those with tiny memory cards and slow internet connections. But over the years both storage and speed have increased which is why they became more lenient over time remember the xbox 360 has been around since 2005.

  • CaoSlayer #31 2 years ago

    I not a genius.. but what stops the games being served in more than one download?

  • smelly #32 2 years ago

    Speaking of xbla - does anyone else REALLY hate the new dashboard for finding arcade games?

    it's sooo cumbersome!

  • smelly #33 2 years ago

    Oh and as a consumer - i hate downloading games more than a few hundred megs big.

    1 gbyte and above can seriously f-off!

  • actionfitz #34 2 years ago

    "Microsoft has been quick to future-proof its golden goose."

    hoping it doesn't continue to be a Golden 'Fleece' of our wallets.

  • metallicorphan #35 2 years ago

    Smelly-on finding Arcade games

    not really sure what the problem is,just go to 'Games Marketplace',press right once to 'all new arrivals' and then flick through....the Arcade section is actually the first segment you come to after you select 'all new arrivals'.....if you want older arcade games just go to 'Games Marketplace' 'browse titles' and select whatever letter the game begins with...now with the improved speed,it should take about 10-15 seconds to find the game you want

    ....just don't try and look for Double Dragon,for some reason they took that off,maybe it was one of those titles that was underperforming when they threatened to take them down

  • SpaceMonkey77 #36 2 years ago

    This was always going to happen eventually, but the goal posts really got moved when Shadow complex arrived.

    The problem that I see, is the same kind of thing that's beginning to happen on iPhone, which is that large developers start their incursion into Live Arcade, and with their established skills, steal the limelight from indie developers, that are trying to find their feet and get their games out there.

    Give it a year or two, and games like Splosion Man, Dust or Braid, will get buried under the weight and production values of bigger titles from bigger devs. MS should keep an eye on this, and look to reward those developers that keep their game size limits down.