X360 dev running out of space

From Software producer Masanori Takeuchi has admitted that Enchant Arms, an RPG due to launch alongside the Xbox 360 later this year, won't fit on a single DVD and might have difficulty coping with two.

"The volume of data in Enchant Arms won't fit into a single DVD. It's an RPG, so we're thinking it would be inevitable that we released it on two discs," said Takeuchi, in comments made to Japanese magazine Famitsu Xbox translated by GameSpot. "But to be honest, that's even looking grim."

On the plus side, the same feature quoted a number of developers working on Xbox 360 titles who praised the system's developer-friendliness. Some acknowledged difficulties in accommodating the sheer power of next-generation systems with traditional-sized teams, and said it took a while to port things successfully from PC CPU architecture (Intel specifically) to the IBM PowerPC-based 360, but most were satisfied.

Cavia chief producer Takuya Iwasaki said that it was much easier to take work done on one project and use it in another. "So if we make a program to display an ocean wave, we can use it again and again." Shunsuke Katsumata, chief planner on Wrestle Kingdom at Yuke's, said more powerful graphical techniques like self-shadowing - now easily applied on X360 - made a huge difference. "When it comes to pro wrestling games, trying to render the wrestlers' muscles is really the key point. But up until now, we couldn't even use a virtual self-shadowing effect due to hardware limitations," he told Famitsu Xbox.

Xbox 360 launches worldwide later this year, and will be available for £210 in a Core System with no hard disk or extra peripherals, and £280 in a package featuring the hard disk, a wireless controller, high-definition video cabling, a voice comms headset and other perks.