Next-Gen Xbox To Lack Backwards Compatibility?

An anonymous reader writes "Biz news site Gamesindustry.biz is reporting that Microsoft's Xbox 2 won't be backward compatible with games for the current Xbox, and quoting 'sources close to Microsoft's senior Xbox executives' explaining some of the thinking behind the decision. All very cloak and dagger, although I guess whoever told them would probably be in line for a firing if they found out... So, is Microsoft right or wrong on this one? Have any Slashdot readers ever actually used the backwards compatibility on their PlayStation 2?"

Comments

Used it?

[cbrocious]

I think I've played more PS1 games on my PS2 than normal PS2 games.

Use PS2 Backward Compatability? Absolutely!

[abcxyz]

We probably have a 50/50 mix of PS1/PS2 games. The old ones were left-overs from the long since dead PS1. My son regulary pulls out some of the old RPG games (and PS1 memory card). Still running just fine and now on the 2'nd PS2!

Backward compatability was and still is a huge selling point for the Playstation 2.

-- Rick

Re:one of the reasons they prospered w/the PC?

[molarmass192]

No man, it's a different CPU endian since they're going PPC instead of Intel for XB2. They'd need to emulate an x86 CPU to get the XB1 game bytecode to run on the XB2. That's fine for normal proggies but for graphics instensive, CPU optimized code like games, it would take a hell of a lot of CPU horse power to make the games enjoyable under an emulator.

Re:Well I dunno

[gamgee5273]

Wait - you are forgetting three systems here: while clearly not as popular as the systems you mention above, the Atari 7800 was backwards-compatible with the 2600 (but not the 5200... go figure) and the Turbo Duo was backwards-compatible with the TurboGrafx 16 and the TG-CD.

But the third one is the most popular series of "consoles" of all time and the grandaddy of all backwards-compatibility: the Game Boy. The GBA and the GB Player for the GameCube can play almost all Game Boy games going back to 1989. Pretty impressive, and a huge selling point, IMHO. I think Sony is modeling their console plans on Nintendo's handheld strategy - and it works. I play PS1 and PS2 games on my PS2 regularly. Now if Nintendo can follow that course for the GC's successor...

To get back to the Xbox, however: I believe that Xbox Next will be fundamentally flawed if it does not allow backwards-compatibility. I don't currently own an Xbox, but if there were a few games I had to have on a Xbox Next, I might buy one of those if I could pick up the three or four Xbox games I want. However, if I can't go backwards... then there is nothing that could compel me to buy either the Xbox or the Xbox Next... except for Shenmue III (if it ever happens).

Re:Major architectural differences?

[melatonin]

They don't even share endianess

Actually, any PowerPC chip can run in big-endian or little-endian. The reason is, back in the PReP days (then CHRP), PPC was supposed to be The Chip to use for All Operating Systems, as AIX, Solaris, NT, Apple's Copland, and most importantly, Taligent, were supposed to be able to run all on one computer (one box). Ah, those were the days. Computing was expected to have a very different future.

Pre-G5, PPC chips had instructions to convert between big and little endian data or something, or maybe address different endian data. This is why Virtual PC for G5s doesn't exist yet; G5s are missing endian-related instructions that are used by current versions of VPC.