HDD Required sticker explained: Xbox 360 MMORPGs need the space

It’s not really surprising after Unreal Tournament III‘s issue with space on the Xbox 360; Microsoft has recently announced during Gamefest that some MMORPGs will be allowed to require a hard drive to run, explaining the circulating news of the “Hard Drive Required” sticker for some future 360 games. The idea is that a “Master Storage File” will have solid allocated space in the HDD that will contain all the files necessary for the game to run.

Microsoft warns developers though, that there are obvious reasons that they should limit the amount of space their games require. Ian Lewis, software design engineer at Microsoft says it succinctly: “Feel free to require 30GB for your game; that’s just going to make your potential audience a lot smaller.” This is not to mention the 20% who own Core Systems.

Their previous stand on the sticker was that “Every game will work with every Xbox 360 system. But just like some games will require you to have a Memory Unit to save games, some games will require you to have a Hard Drive to experience them.” We’ll have to see how this one plays out for the Core owners. Nothing’s final yet anyway as these are all still in the works.

Also during Gamefest they explained their stand on Silver and Gold members for subscription titles. While it isn’t final yet, the dominant idea is that Silver members will only have to pay for the game’s subscription instead of having to upgrade to Gold.

It’s not really surprising after Unreal Tournament III‘s issue with space on the Xbox 360; Microsoft has recently announced during Gamefest that some MMORPGs will be allowed to require a hard drive to run, explaining the circulating news of the “Hard Drive Required” sticker for some future 360 games. The idea is that a “Master Storage File” will have solid allocated space in the HDD that will contain all the files necessary for the game to run.

Microsoft warns developers though, that there are obvious reasons that they should limit the amount of space their games require. Ian Lewis, software design engineer at Microsoft says it succinctly: “Feel free to require 30GB for your game; that’s just going to make your potential audience a lot smaller.” This is not to mention the 20% who own Core Systems.

Their previous stand on the sticker was that “Every game will work with every Xbox 360 system. But just like some games will require you to have a Memory Unit to save games, some games will require you to have a Hard Drive to experience them.” We’ll have to see how this one plays out for the Core owners. Nothing’s final yet anyway as these are all still in the works.

Also during Gamefest they explained their stand on Silver and Gold members for subscription titles. While it isn’t final yet, the dominant idea is that Silver members will only have to pay for the game’s subscription instead of having to upgrade to Gold.