360 Arcade games HAVE to run on a 14" TV

via Computer and Video Games


A little bit of behind-the-scenes info has come to light about Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade certification process via OXM.

Now we all know XBLA game have to have a certain number of achievements and be under a certain size, but did you know that they have to be playable on a 14-inch CRT television? If you did, stop reading now. There's nothing more for you here.

Introversion Software MD Mark Morris (currently working on Darwinia+ for XBLA) told OXM, "Microsoft has extremely strict technical certification requirements that you have to get right. One of the biggest challenges is that your game has got to be playable on a 14-inch CRT television.

"So you have to do all this visibility work in case someone is playing it on a composite cable through a TV, to make sure they can still read all of the text and tell exactly what's going on."

If anyone can remember playing Capcom's Dead Rising on an old-skool TV, and bursting blood vessels in their eyeballs trying to read the tiny text, then you'll know what he's talking about.

Read more about how games get onto Xbox Live over on OXM. It's well worth a look.