Microsoft Wises Up On SSFIIHD and Bionic Commando

I wrote last month about the development teams for Street Fighter II HD and Bionic Commando ReArmed having issues with Microsoft's 150MB limitation on XBLA games. In the case of Bionic Commando, the XBLA version would have to forgo high resolution textures found in the PS3 version in order to fall under the size limit. SFII would've seen extra content removed from the game due to its 1080p hand drawn graphics taking up too much room.

Thankfully, Microsoft has come to their senses and given the two games a pass on the arbitrary size limit, avoiding a situation in which the PSN versions would be superior. There's no word on how big each game will end up being since they are still in development but it should be safe to assume that MS will make sure that the XBLA versions are in no way inferior to their PSN counterparts.

While this is all well and good, the 150MB size limit is still obviously an issue. The Behemoth's long awaited (and bad-ass looking!) 4-player brawler, Castle Crashers, was delayed for a full year shortly after MS increased the size limit last time so it could take advantage of the tripled storage space. If Microsoft didn't have this pointless size limit, Castle Crashers would likely be closer to release, if not already out, and would probably be an even better game than it'll end up being.

Microsoft, stop stifling creativity and give developers whatever space they need to make the kind of games they want. XBLA has been a breeding ground for garbage for the last year or so with very few original titles being worthwhile. There's a reason Sony is getting better original content on PSN.

[via CVG]