Why broadband limits are holding developers back

"[Telecom operators] are kind of holding us back in many respects... We have to worry about broadband when we should be thinking about making better games."

- Eidos President Ian Livingstone expresses his frustrations with modern broadband speeds. Whether you're developing a single player game or a large scale MMO, Livingstone noted that broadband speeds are becoming an increasingly problematic bottleneck for game development. Download speeds might be increasing worldwide, but file sizes for digital games are growing even faster. It takes quite a long time to download most digital games, and Livingstone believes home consoles haven't been able to embrace a digital-only model for that very reason. And of course there's the ever-present problem of online latency. Until broadband speeds improve, developers will have to go out of their way to compensate for lag in their online games. "The message is: build bigger pipes and we'll try not to fill them," Livngstone said. "ISPs, please do not rest on your laurels."