Late Night Consoling

When questioned recently about whether the Xbox Live Arcade release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night's rule-breaking file size was indicative of a download size limit policy change, Microsoft representatives responded that despite the exception the limit remains unchanged. Now, 1UP is reporting on a rumor from an unnamed insider that Microsoft actually has raised the limit across the board, and substantially so. Allegedly, the new standard limit is 250 MB, 500% the previous limit of 50 MB. Furthermore, 1UP claims that upon review and approval, that limit can be raised to a whopping 450 MB if developers claim it is necessary for their particular games. If true, this larger file size would put Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade download limit only 50 MB behind Sony's limit for games delivered to its PlayStation Store.

As for Microsoft's official stance on the matter, company representatives are carrying the same tune they did last week, stating that the size limit has not changed but exceptions will be made in cases of necessity.

In a revelation so nonspecific it could only be a new Wii game announcement, Capcom has aparrently told Japanese publication Gemaga that it currently has a game in development for Nintendo's current home console. The news came courtesy of noted producer Keiji Inafune, best known for Mega Man as well as, more recently, Dead Rising (X360) and Lost Planet (X360). Inafune stated that he hopes company will be able to show the game some time this year.

To celebrate the upcoming twentieth anniversary of Square's legendary Final Fantasy series of RPGs, Square Enix revealed to Japanese publication Famitsu that it plans to bring updated versions of the first two Final Fantasy games to PSP. Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II are some of the most frequently remade games in the series, having originally appeared on the NES (or Famicom) and later on the PlayStation as Game Boy Advance, as well as several others that never made it out of Japan. To keep the games up to date with their various revisions, they will contain the added content of the Game Boy Advance versions as well as the introductions of the PlayStation versions. Graphically, the games have been enhanced as well, with higher resolution sprites and an overworld tilted at a slanted perspective. Screenshots are available at the Famitsu website.

It is not clear if the games will be released in Japan on the actual series anniversary of December 18, 2007, or on some other date. No North American release plans have been announced.

Product content ratings for Hudson's Wii titles Kororinpa and Wing Island on the ESRB website suggest that the two games will be getting a North American release. Previously, there has been no indication of whether the games would be localized to the continent, and Hudson has still yet to comment officially on the matter. Both Kororinpa, a platformer similar to Marble Madness or the more recent Super Monkey Ball franchise, as well as Wing Island, an arcadey flight combat game, have been released in Hudson's native territory of Japan.

This week, the planned Xbox Live Marketplace demo of Real Time Worlds' Crackdown (X360) was pushed back to an unspecified date some time this month. Today, a user designed as "Crackdown Staff" on the official Crackdown forums, gave an updated date. The demo is now expected to be available on Tuesday, January 23, at 2:00am Pacific Standard Time.

In other Crackdown news, Microsoft announced today that the game has gone gold, putting it on track for its planned February 20 release date.

Just a month after announcing that Epic Games' well received third person shooter Gears of War (X360) had reached 2 million sales worldwide, publisher Microsoft announced today that the game has sold yet another million in total, putting it past the 3 million mark. These sales came along with a total of 750,000 downloads of the game's recently released free Xbox Live Marketplace content.