On the Xbox LIVE Arcade (XBLA) front, the file size limit will once again be bumped up, this time pretty significantly. The file size restriction goes up from 150 MB to 350 MB, so developers will have a bit more room to work with. Those 50 MB days seem distant. It was also mentioned that Microsoft will be starting a first-party studio for developing original and exclusive Xbox Live Arcade games. In an effort to improve "quality over quantity" of XBLA games available, a new measure may be imposed to clear out some of the underperforming games.

"The way it will work is that the title will need to be at least 6 months old and have a Metacritic score below 65 and a conversion rate below 6% on the service," said Marc Whitten.

No specific titles were singled out, however, some of the XBLA games that could fall under that rule include (for their release date and score):
- Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe, released October 17, 2007 (64)
- Hardwood Hearts, released December 8, 2005 (64)
- Texas Hold 'em, released August 23, 2006 (63)
- Fatal Fury Special, released September 5, 2007 (63)
- Contra, released November 8, 2006 (63)
- Marathon: Durandal, released August 1, 2007 (63)
- Missile Command, released July 4, 2007 (63)
- Time Pilot, released August 30, 2006 (63)
- Track & Field, released August 8, 2007 (63)
- Hardwood Backgammon, released December 8, 2005 (62)
- Hardwood Spades, released December 8, 2005 (62)
- Pac-Man, released August 9, 2006 (62)
- Frogger, released July 12, 2006 (62)
- Mad Tracks, released May 30, 2007 (62)
- Root Beer Tapper, released February 7, 2007 (61)
- Super Contra, released July 25, 2007 (61)
- Geon: Emotions, released September 18, 2007 (59)
- Soltrio Solitaire, released May 16, 2007 (59)
- Rush'n Attack, released May 23, 2007 (58)
- Aegis Wing, released May 16, 2007, free XBLA game (58)
- Defender, released November 15, 2006 (58)
- Double Dragon, released May 9, 2007 (57)
- Xevious, released May 23, 2007 (56)
- Gyruss, released April 18, 2007 (56)
- Asteroids / Asteroids Deluxe, released November 28, 2007 (55)
- Battlestar Galactica, released October 24, 2007 (55)
- Centipede & Millipede, released May 2, 2007 (55)
- Spyglass Board Games, released August 1, 2007 (54)
- Tetris Splash, released October 3, 2007 (53)
- Ecco the Dolphin, released August 15, 2007 (53)
- Yie Ar Kung-Fu, released July 18, 2007 (51)
- Wing Commander Arena, released July 25, 2007 (51)
- Novadrome, released December 20, 2006 (50)
- Shrek-N-Roll, released November 14, 2007 (49)
- Scramble, released September 13, 2006 (47)
- Street Trace: NYC, released August 22, 2007 (45)
- Cyberball 2072, released September 5, 2007 (41)
- Word Puzzle, released November 7, 2007 (44)
- Screwjumper!, released November 14, 2007 (40)
- TotemBall, released October 4, 2006 (44)
- Yaris (a free XBLA game), released October 10, 2007 (17)

While no superficial changes to the Xbox 360 dashboard are coming in a spring dashboard update, it will be easier to access content previously purchased via LIVE. An update to the digital-rights management (DRM) will allow easier re-licensing of purchased downloads on a single Xbox 360 system, which is expected sometime next month.

Read the full interview at Next-Gen.biz.

Write Comment
Name:	Guest
Title:
BBCode:
Comment:

Powered by AkoComment 2.0!