Capcom has announced that it will change something that until now, has not been a major issue for the gaming community-text size. The controversy started on Xbox Live over the downloadable demo ofLost Planet during the Thanksgiving holidays. While designing the game, Capcom made the call to accommodate HDTVs and script in on-screen text appropriate for high definition screens. The problem arose when gamers who owned standard televisions complained that the text size was too small and could not be clearly read.
Capcom has released an official statement on the matter stating:
"Capcom is listening and taking our community to heart. We have noticed the recent concern about the text size in Lost Planet for SDTV users, in particular the ‘Elimination’ mode of the multiplayer game where players’ scores are displayed on the top left of the screen. We want to assure gamers that we have already implemented a solution for text display in Elimination, which will be reflected in the final game (although it’s unfortunately not in the demo)."
The Capcom incident of unreadable text for standard definition television owners may be a problem that has not been fully appreciated until now. The majority of TVs used in this country are SD. But with the release of the Xbox 360 and PS3, which can both output HD signals, the disparity between gamers who have HDTVs and those who don,t will have to be taken into consideration by game developers in order to meet the needs of both camps. But this is most likely a short lived scenario, as US programming providers are scheduled for a complete transition to HDTV signaling by February 2009. Once that day comes, gamers clinging to their SD televisions may have little choice in adopting the new technology.
Capcom fans may recall striking similarities between the issues reported with Lost Planet and those experienced with Dead Rising. The zombie-bashing hit suffered from identical problems displaying tiny text in SD.
Lost Planet, is scheduled for release on January 12, 2007 for the Xbox 360.
