Sony announce their own size limit for digitally distributed games

[magneticman]

Some more PS3 news

One of the challenges for developers working on Xbox Live Arcade games is the 50MB size limit Microsoft has mandated for the Xbox 360's digitally distributed titles. Size won't be quite as big a concern for developers of PlayStation 3 downloadable games, as Sony Computer Entertainment Santa Monica director John Hight told Firing Squad in an interview.

"We've arbitrarily set a limit of 500MB to keep download times reasonable," Hight is quoted as saying. "Since we've got plenty of HD space we can accommodate even bigger games and a lot of them."

While Sony hasn't announced an upper limit for its downloadable games before, it's been clear for some time that it would allow larger digitally distributed games on the PS3. The company had promised that it would be releasing original PlayStation games--which can be hundreds of megabytes--on the service.

Nice! But I think that means there won't be any final fantasy games available. Yet.

[jonathan_phang]

Well, unless its FFIII (or 6 if you mean the uk released on) but you know what i mean. Fantastic 2d graphics, awesome story - would really show off that new hardware...

[chuckskull]

I'm guessing this limit will increase peoples connections speeds do. then again japan already has 100mbit symmetrical lines, so I may be wrong there.

For multi disc PS1/PS2 games, surely you can start playing the first disc while the rest download?

[ExceededGoku]

"Since we've got plenty of HD space we can accommodate even bigger games and a lot of them."

Oooh look at that stab at microsoft, Sony really are vicious...

[Fabula]

[QUOTE=chuckskull;929061
For multi disc PS1/PS2 games, surely you can start playing the first disc while the rest download?[/QUOTE]

Not simultaneously. Seems you can't download in the background while playing something else. So If you need to download an entire CD, then you have to leave your system downloading for however long it takes.

But hopefully this "feature" will be fixed by the time it is out in UK.

[pickledliver]

At least while us xbox 360 owner's are downloading our "small" games, we'll be able play another game instead of watching a progress bar!

[magneticman]

btw i just found out new info, this is for original/exclusive games only,

also a lot of PS2 and PS1 games will be able to d/l in their entirety (sp)

[Aaron]

Apparently programming for the XBLA limit of 50MB is pretty hard. Apparently even old games like Worms are having to be cut down.

[Carlh]

I am sure it is hard to program a game into a 50MB limit however I can understand why Microsoft have done this for the XBLA games

With the hard drive with the dashboard on etc there is only just over 13GB left if users were filling it with 500MB arcarde games you would soon fill the hard drive - (around 26 arcade games bear in mind some will be used for save games etc)

I dont think its important at the moment as its likely that Microsoft shall bring out a larger Hard Drive in the near future therefore this will make the 20GB vs 60GB arguement no longer valid.

If Microsoft do bring out a larger hard drive surely it would tho' make sense to remove the 50MB upper limit on the XBLA games at the moment

[wrathamon]

With the hard drive with the dashboard on etc there is only just over 13GB left

The Dashboard is stored in flash memory on the 360 motherboard, not the hard drive - as even Core 360's without the HD need to have the dashboard

The 6-7 gig not available on the HD is used by the xbox1 emulator and cache space (4 gig reserved to mimic the original Xbox's HD) as well as extra cache space that 360 games can use if the HD is present to speed up loading.

[UltraMagnus]

500mb sounds reasonable.

just another reason the PS3 will Pown the 360

[theuncharmed]

just another reason the PS3 will Pown the 360

OT: It's doing well so far [Note, sarcasm], only like 5.5 million + units behind ... and for each console Sony lose between $200 - $300 dollars whereas the 360 makes money. Of course only time will tell, but I think MS is doing very well for itself.

You know a new HDD will become available and if it becomes main stream for downloading media/films and games right from home then I think you'll find large external drives will become widely available.

I'm sure Sony would start perhaps a similar media/full game service and release an external HDD as well.

[YorkieBen]

Apparently programming for the XBLA limit of 50MB is pretty hard. Apparently even old games like Worms are having to be cut down.

They are having to cut down worms

which came out on the amiga. On 2 800mb floppy disks from what I can remember.

personally it might lead to more efficient programming and move away from bloated program sizes - e.g. Resistance on the PS3 is about 16GB in size. Im pretty sure that could have been trimmed without compromising on image quality etc as from what I have seen it isn't a huge quantum leap in image quality over other titles (especially as it is only 720p)

[MadduckUK]

On 2 800mb

my god thats huge then! whichever way you look at it





Worms - The Directors Cut is available in a 2.2MB zip file. not being able to work to a 50 meg limit for these kind of games is pathetic, and a sign of the crazy bloating of software that has happened since there original release

[YorkieBen]

my god thats huge then! whichever way you look at it





Worms - The Directors Cut is available in a 2.2MB zip file. not being able to work to a 50 meg limit for these kind of games is pathetic, and a sign of the crazy bloating of software that has happened since there original release

i meant kb

[muddyfox470]

tbh i cannot really think of any 'memorable' games that i played on the ps1 that would warrant me downloading them, especially as i presume you could probably pick up the games off ebay or similar to get them dirt cheap instead of having to pay to download?

the nice thing about the wii is that they have nice small 'retro' games from many different platforms which is good for those retro gamers, altho that doesnt really affect me.

not trying to bash anyone/anything; the xbox's ability to download and play a game is pretty neat too.

id be interested in the games that are available from ps3 and the speeds of the servers. the problem is with us lot in britain most broadband users still have 2 or 8mb, very few have 10mb+ (or rated to that effect - i never seem to get the max stated for my line). especially when people in the rest of europe and around the world have broadband of 20mb+ (for the majority of users).

now who still has dial up?

Ian