Microsoft rejected Portal from XBLA lineup

by Dustin Burg { Apr 28th 2008 at 9:30AM }

GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Valve's Orange Box hit Portal was rejected by Microsoft after Valve made an effort to get the title on the Xbox Live Arcade.

Valve's Doug Lombardi recently told GamesIndustry.biz that he'd "love to sell Portal on Xbox live" but that "the platform holders aren't doing that right now" because of "size limit and all kinds of other things." Because, if you recall, Microsoft has strict rules on XBLA games maxing out at 150MB in size. Though, Lombardi is optimistic about Portal hitting the XBLA, saying that "it always happens once it's been proven and I think it's been proven now on Steam, so I'm sure it'll migrate back to the consoles just like everything else does." Meh ...

So, there you have it, Microsoft crushed our Portal XBLA dreams. Those evil monkeys. Maybe the N+ guys were right about MS and their iron-fisted rule over the XBLA. Maybe?

Tags: orange-box, portal, valve, xbla

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

horngreen @ Apr 28th 2008 9:36AM

I'm surprised MS doesn't let EVERYTHING onto XBLA. That way they just might sell some of those overpriced 120 gig hard drives.

Brucie B @ Apr 28th 2008 9:41AM

Get with the Times MS
There is No excuse for this Bull****, Now your Screwing every Pro/Elite gamer!

SadisticHam @ Apr 28th 2008 9:41AM

Remove the cap, let any size on the arcade, seriously theres no harm. If you don't have the memory don't buy it, simple. More memory just means more quantity as long as we still get small sized games come through too i don't see the problem, I already have portal but it's a shame people will have to miss out.

Zach Inglis @ Apr 28th 2008 9:42AM

How about changing "Xbox Originals" to be "Originals" and putting this under that?

ryan @ Apr 28th 2008 10:28AM

very good idea Zach!

Boff @ Apr 28th 2008 11:11AM

Yeah nice one, with a bit of re-structuring they could find room for everything. No excuses!

xFenixKnightx @ Apr 28th 2008 9:48AM

WTF?!!! What a bonehead move MS!!!

Knight Marquise @ Apr 28th 2008 9:57AM

Huh....if they put portal out on XBLA, I may just give that game a shot on the free demo.

mgroves @ Apr 28th 2008 9:58AM

I will shove a cake where the sun don't shine, Mr. Gates, unless you allow Portal onto XLBA. AND THAT IS NO LIE.

Vcize @ Apr 28th 2008 11:18AM

I see what you did there.

AnOffday @ Apr 28th 2008 10:03AM

So why was Tomb Raider Anniversary allowed to be bought and downloaded over Live. What about all the backwards compatible games that NO ONE is buying? Portal has to be able to fit somewhere onto Live.

I bet MS just hates Valve because of their stance on free DLC.

Knight Marquise @ Apr 28th 2008 12:24PM

So no one has bought the xbox originals? Damn...and here I thought that I'd purchased about half of that library off of xblm.

AnOffday @ Apr 28th 2008 1:12PM

Sorry. Let me re-phrase. No one with half a brain. You realize you could get the exact same game for the same price, often times half of the price, and get a the disc, a case, and a manual? Or are you just that lazy that you'd rather not get up to change discs?

Knight Marquise @ Apr 28th 2008 2:08PM

Personally, I hate dealing with discs, it has nothing to do with being lazy. Same reason why I run a full blown media server.

I don't have to look for the "cheapest" method of entertainment, only the most convenient.

Now I'll pull a page out of your book, do some "projecting" of my own and state perhaps if you had a decent income, you wouldn't worry so much about price either, and be more concerned about convenience.

Grow up. Not everyone has your preferences, and in not doing so, does not equate them to being "lazy".

/rant

AnOffday @ Apr 28th 2008 5:17PM

Obviously coming to a video game blog and bragging about the money you have, while putting others down for trying to save money isn't part of being "grown up."

Knight Marquise @ Apr 28th 2008 9:29PM

Anoffday~

Read what you posted and quit projecting your inadequacies onto others.

Gawd how I hate getting into debates with the uneducated coupled with no reading comprehension.

Go to school son, graduate, follow through with college and come see me. If I'm hiring you might luck out as long as your major is in IT and not Anthropology.

AnOffday @ Apr 28th 2008 11:04PM

Well, I'm in college right now. And I consider myself educated, but thanks for your concern.

Joe @ Apr 28th 2008 10:12AM

Why dont you guys stfu and go buy orange box if you want portal so bad.

Knight Marquise @ Apr 28th 2008 12:26PM

That's the point Joe. Many don't, and I sure as hell don't, let alone the old retreads and TF2 in the orange box.

If Portal were available on XBLM, I would download the demo and give it a shot.

Otherwise, I'll never touch the game, and it doesn't bother me a bit.

E-Rock @ Apr 28th 2008 12:37PM

Rent it for portal. It's quick, it's fun and you can ignore the rest of the orange box. (That's what I did)

JakubK666 (Ninja Defence Force) @ Apr 28th 2008 1:46PM

That's very dumb of you.Imo, Portal was the worst out of all TOB games.Spies sappin'n mah sentry ftw!

CameronA. @ Apr 28th 2008 10:36AM

It's meant to be about buying Portal alone. Some may not want to play Half Life 2 or have to pay full price for a game that they aren't going to play. So, offering Portal as a stand-alone download would be a very smart move.

A move that Microsoft can't seem to grasp. They're being difficult about making money!

Mr. Nosuch @ Apr 28th 2008 10:39AM

This isn't a triumph.

I'm making a note here: huge failure.

xFenixKnightx @ Apr 28th 2008 11:17AM

LOL, Agreed!

Chuck @ Apr 28th 2008 10:39AM

I have no interest in the rest of the Orange Box pack and have thought many times how awesome Portal would have been as a downloadable title as a quick $15 to $20 fix. I borrowed a friends copy of Orange box to play through Portal but I would love for it to be sitting on my hard drive ready to play at a moment's notice.

Not packing the hard drive in with all Xbox 360s and all the policy side effects from this has been one of Microsoft's biggest mistakes this time around.

That and can we please lower the cost of the 120gig drive?!? I can't believe there is a $130 markup from the same drive on Buy.com! Do they NOT want me to buy it? I love the Xbox Originals program and have bought a few games. It reminds me of having HDLoader on my PS2. But with only ~14GB of usable space on the HD, and the 120GB drive beyond what any sane person would pay for the upgrade, I'm left with a full HD and the stifling of digital distribution... Grr!

JakubK666 (Ninja Defence Force) @ Apr 28th 2008 10:51AM

Guys, you do realise that Portal Standalone is out?

And MS won't allow it because (as a couple of Portal fanboys flamed me some time ago), it's not a "tech-demo/experiment" but a "full ass-kicking game".

Dick @ Apr 28th 2008 10:55AM

To everyone complaining about having to get 4 games you will not play just to get portal, stfu and go get a paper route.

Who cares if this is not released on XBLA? Suck it up and get a used disc at your local ripoff (I mean Gamestop).

Besides, ya morons, you got a 360 for fps', so play the other 4 games (that happen to be fps) or dont.

Go get a job mowing lawns, ya kids

Aero @ Apr 28th 2008 10:56AM

If it came to XBLA, then it wouldn't have been on the Orange Box and I'm sure the price wouldn't have gone down so I don't mind.
Not to mention my poor little HDD probably couldn't take it.
Although I wouldn't mind if Microsoft fixed the HDD transfer license stuff.

Boff @ Apr 28th 2008 11:09AM

I think it would make an absolute killing if they put it out on the XBLA now.

On a side note, with all the quality retail titles out now the XBLA has lost it's shine a bit for me personally.

Vcize @ Apr 28th 2008 11:20AM

I will mention that, even to those not interested in the other 4 games in Orange Box, Portal is worth the cost alone even though it's quite short.

CharleyTony @ Apr 28th 2008 11:27AM

Microsoft is KINDA right ... Portal should not go on XBLA...
But should Portal become a downloadable game like warhawk on PS3 ? ABSOLUTELY...
If Microsoft want to make sure that this new kind of "Downloable nextgen game" does not screw anybody, all they should do as far as limitations should be that the game has to be available on retail aswell .... Like in the "ORANGE BOX"

Portal would be a great stand alone game, Microsoft put on your thinking hats and make up some way to keep your XBLA limitations and still get this game onto our hard drives.

joey @ Apr 28th 2008 11:35AM

I'm sick of this 150mb cap bullshit.
It's not bringing any value to the gamers

You know what Valve, put Portal on PSN.

Let the sales do the talking.

Procris @ Apr 28th 2008 12:32PM

I'm amazed that theres so much hate here for XBLA. I'm in full agreement that we already have Portal in Orangebox, so if your desperate to play it, go buy it. My friend picked up Orangebox for a mere $15 pre-owned. Which is fantastic considering it was also in great condition. Not to mention the 360 version of Orangebox is great, much better than what PS3 owners have.

Obviously there is 2 reasons why a game such as Portal is not right for XBLA. Space being its way over 150mb, but how much more i have no idea. The second being Portal is more in line with a very short retail game. Seriously compare it to every game on XBLA and you will realise that a game such as Portal deserves to be in its own category, not lumped with Arcade games which are meant to be incredibly simple. I'm going to say it but half the people here complaining would never buy it as DLC anyway. You'd find more ways to complain about the price and how much memory it takes up.

@ AnOffday: And how exactly do you know Xbox Originals aren't selling? You have nothing what so ever to back up that very bold claim, until Microsoft disclose details.

I think the best solution to this really is to give new downloadable 360 games, that can already be bought at retail on a disk their own section on XBL. This way they are not limited by XBLA's limit and people that actually are insane enough to buy a 120gb HDD will actually finally have a reason for buying it in the first place.

Or they could start shipping Arcade's with 20gb hard drives, replace preim with a 60gb HDD and lower the price on both the 20gb and 120gb. Never going to happen but it should.

NukeAssault @ Apr 28th 2008 12:59PM

Sell it in 150mb chunks. =P

Exo @ Apr 28th 2008 1:10PM

the N+ devs are retards tehy only said xbla was ful of bad games because they have beefs with alot of the otehr developers, heck they tried to get Alien hominid kicked from IGA awards a few years ago

ccc @ Apr 28th 2008 2:06PM

MS is makeing some big mistakes.

Where are these games ms?

Dodonpachi?

Ketsui X?

Raiden Fighters Aces?

The King Of Fighters 12?

Fist of The North Star?

The New Guilty Gear that came out only on ps2?

I'm trying to stay a 1 console guy ms but seriously, your breaking my balls man.