Microsoft have announced that, as part of their New Year plan, XBLIG devs will now be able to submit games through the App Hub up to sizes of 500MB. Previously, CCGAME bundles submitted for XBLIG consideration had to adhere to a maximum file size of 150MB...but no longer!

Additionally, Microsoft have altered their price plan for Xbox LIVE Indie Games. In the past, there's been a requirement that titles larger than 50MB be priced at either 240 or 400 points. Now, however, if a title's file size weighs in at under 150MB, developers will be able to slap an 80 MS points tag on it.

Finally, Microsoft have increased the maximum number of games a developer can submit from ten to twenty.

"The last change affects a fewer number of developers, but we still believe it’s an important update," said the statement on the XNA Game Studio Team Blog. "Originally developers were limited to just eight titles on Xbox LIVE Indie Games. When Creators Club became App Hub, we raised the limit up to ten. We’re happy today to let you know that we’re again raising this limit up to twenty titles per developer.

"We’re continuing to watch our developer base and adapt the system to the needs of our creators. We hope you’re all as excited as we are to kick off 2012 with these great updates to the App Hub to enable our developers to make even better content for Xbox LIVE Indie Games."

Some positive changes, then, but if the forums are anything to go by these are mid-range tweaks that no-one was shouting particularly loudly about to begin with, particularly when buggy lists, an eye towards leaderboards and Achievements integration were being bandied about.

And plenty have already sounded off when it comes to navigation and being buried in the new Dashboard already. Nonetheless it's a good move by Microsoft, we only hope that they can really listen to their indie dev community and implement some of the larger changes that have been sitting at the top of the community's wishlists for some time.