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360's Backwards Compatibility Weak?
GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that the backwards compatibility that Microsoft offered up at the Monday press conference may not be anything approaching what we're used to. Due to the massive design changes in the shift from the Xbox to the 360, Xbox titles may have to be recompiled in order to work on the next-gen console. From the article: "The news has raised more questions than it answers, however, as it suggests that gamers may need to purchase titles they already own in order to play them on an Xbox 360 - and almost certainly means that only a sub-set of Xbox games will ever be playable on the new console." Update: 05/20 15:08 GMT by Z : The article has been updated with a quote from MS specifically saying that gamers will *not* need to repurchase Xbox titles to play them on the 360.
Sorry, but I'm surprised none of the people here who got 3+ for their comments have read this article.
They clearly say they are going to EMULATE the top titles. Now, they say that if they manage to emulate Halo2, there's good chance that games that use a subset of funcionality will also work. Hence, they target a few games, and they get collateral compatibility from these high-end titles.
...but obviously Microsoft couldn't afford to pull a playstation2 and put an entire PS1 on the die.
Um, nope. The PS2 CPU is just a PS2. The PS1 processor is a seperate chip used by the PS2 to handle I/O. Not on the "die". Just being pedantic sorry.
I find that hard to believe. Normally the hardware and actual games will be priced higher in Japan and lower in America. We'll have to see what happens in about a year though.