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[Varth]

When asked about XCOM Enemy Within, Garth DeAngelis stated that

For the expansion on the PC, it was fairly straightforward. But when it came to the consoles, it was too big. If we wanted to deliver the same content to the console players, we had to do it this way as a standalone expansion on a disc. We couldn’t simply just patch it in.

Seems pretty confusing to me. GTA DLC are 2gb on PS3, how in hell would the extra content for XCOM be actually bigger? I guess he's referring to patch size. But they wouldn't giva away the content for free via patch.

In the end, it's a strategic decision to go with a phisical release, and I can live with that (not that I think it's gonna pay out for them in the end), but all this brought me to wonder about the filesize limits, and found there's quite the confusion on them.

Most of the info comes from XBLA, since the limits appeared to be more strict.

Patch size=4MB?

The update Lab Zero put together for its fighting game is roughly 590 MB in size — a whopping 147.5 times the size of the paltry 4 MB limit the developer says Microsoft places on updates.

Only the need for publishers to pay up for those was removed, not the filesize limit, AFAIK.

File size=2.5GB? DLC size is maybe included?

The limit has since been changed to 150MB, then 350MB, and now 2GB, the latter of which is a technical limitation of the system (rather than an arbitrary limit imposed by Microsoft).[10] On September 12, 2012 the 2GB limit was raised to an unknown number with two titles, Red Johnson's Chronicles and Double Dragon Neon weighing at 2.68GB and 2.24GB, respectively

What about PS3? There seems to be no actual limit, as Skullgirls had no problem there. Also, no file limit that I know of, right? I guess since these limits were born out of some SKU not having onboard memory, next gen won't have those in place, right?

 

[Kucan]

As far as I know the Wii U and 3DS have no limits on patching and DLC and I think the PS4 is the same. Not sure about the XBOne though.

 

[Varth]

As far as I know the Wii U and 3DS have no limits on patching and DLC and I think the PS4 is the same. Not sure about the XBOne though.

I guess for WiiU and nextgen it's because they have onboard memory in all SKU. But the lack of restrictions for 3DS and Vita bugs me. Why is something like the huge 1,1GB patch for Killzone Mercenary allowed on a console that doesn't have any memory in its first model (new one wouldn't cut it anyway)? Wouldn't this kind of limitations make more sense for handhelds?