Microsoft has said MMO developers are now allowed to implement hard drive requirements for their games

From the launch of the hardware, one criticism of the Xbox 360 has been the way the base Core unit has no hard drive, effectively splitting the market between those with ample storage space and those without.This means developers are unable to utilize the Xbox 360's hard drive in games, as they must cater to the lowest common denominator--the Core user.However, an MCV report from Microsoft's Gamefest says MMO developers will be allowed to require users to have a hard drive to play their titles.Game companies will have to display the requirement on the front of the box.Requiring Xbox 360 gamers to have a hard drive isn't totally unprecedented, just uncommon. The MMO Final Fantasy XI required 360 gamers to have the extra storage space.Microsoft said that it will not put any limitations on the amount of hard drive space required for a game, but Microsoft's Ian Lewis warned, "Feel free to require 30GB for your game – that's just going to make your potential audience a lot smaller.”Developers have previously spoken out about having to develop for hard drive-less Xbox 360s, namely Rockstar creative VP Dan Houser, who told the Official PlayStation Magazine UK earlier this year, "On PS3 you've got a guarantee that every machine is going to have a hard drive and, with Blu-ray, you've got plenty of storage, whereas on Xbox 360 there's no guarantee of a hard-drive and you're working with the DVD format. Does that create limitations? Yep."As the Gamefest report states, however, it appears that MMOs will be the only types of games that will be able to take advantage of this loosening of developer restrictions.