RSSXbox Gets Bigger Live Games, Memory Card
By Ed Oswald | Published March 5, 2007, 10:52 AM
Microsoft plans to allow Xbox Live Arcade games to use more space, announcing it had increased the official size limit from 50 to 150 megabytes. In addition, the company also announced a larger memory card with a capacity of 512MB.
The unit will be priced at $49.99 USD, and comes preloaded with the Xbox Live Arcade game "Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved" for a limited time. The original 64MB version will drop in price to $29.99 USD.
Using the memory card, Xbox 360 users would be able to download exclusive content from the 45,000 retail kiosks Microsoft has, and utilize eight times the space to store gaming content.
The increased size limit for Xbox Live Arcade games is aimed at allowing developers to continue to create newer and more intensive games for Microsoft's console.
"Our focus is on continuing to provide developers with an environment that allows for the creation of cost-efficient games and that nurtures an artistic and creative approach to game development," Xbox Live head Chris Early said.
At the Game Developers Conference held this week in San Francisco, Microsoft also plans to show off some of the newest Xbox Live Arcade titles. They include music game "Boom Boom Rocket" by EA, Sierra Online's "3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures," Klei's "Eets: Chowdown", Rare's "Jetpac Refueled," and Zen Studios' "Pinball FX."
They're releasing a new version of the 360 for over $500 with HDMI, optional black paint job, 1080p out of the box, and a 120 gig hd.
And the hd will be swappable so this is good news. As for when the new model comes out, no new word.
512 megs beats 64 megs by a long shot, we'll probably be able to buy these for $20 a pop on ebay once they come out, so two would be a gig and that can store a fair amount of music. I prefer flash memory over any hd so this move is in my favor. Now if they'd move on and release 1 gig and higher versions to keep up with the flash market, good deal.
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|512Mb... WOOO... Impressive.. NOT...
I thought the 360 was supposed to be "next gen"...
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|I agree that 512mb is still small considering you can get like 1gb or 4gb SD cards, but it is the biggest for consoles. Technically it is "next-gen" for consoles.
PSone: 128k
N64: 256k
Gamecube: 4mb
PS2: 8mb
Xbox: 8mb
Xbox 360: 64mb (now 512mb)
PS3: n/a
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|The 150MB limit makes a lot of sense. But Microsoft really needs to get a new hard drive out there. A demo, a movie, and that's about it if you have backwards compatibility on your drive. Managing the hard drive shouldn't be a pain.
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|I have about 8 demos, dozens of live games and a few 30 minute shows and I have about 6GB free. I agree that they need a bigger drive asap...but lets not exaggerate here, one demo and one movie will not fill up your drive. :)
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|True, but releasing a 20gb drive (that already had like what, 6-8gb used with preloaded software, really only leaving around 12gb) was pretty short-sighted. I would've liked to see a 20gb core model and (at least a) 60gb premium model. Maybe even 80gb or 100gb (have to make getting the premium model worth the upgrade).
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