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.

Comments

Whooptie doo, one possibility

[Filiks]

If the average game executable and some key files that need recompiling are 100MB, and I bet most are more like 20MB, MS could release a DVD with 100 recompiled games on it. Just put in the disc, select all the games you and your friends play, wait a minute for the files to copy to the HD, then put in the games actual DVD and play. Since the files are copied to the HD, you only have to do this once.

Better yet, make the files downloadable for those with broadband. Problem solved, and only about 2GB of hard drive space used for twenty games.

Re:This is cynical.

[StocDred]

Put this on the list with those faked screenshots from Xbox launch, the DVD capability that became a separate purchase, and the invention of timed exclusives. (Splinter Cell! ONLY ON XBOX! For three months!)

The Different GPU shouldn't a problem

[LWATCDR]

The XBox runs a modified w2k kernel and DirectX. One of the big selling points to developers was that you could port your Windows games to it with little effort. Now unless the program goes right to the hardware This should make running under Virtual PC pretty simple. You have a very well defined hardware target and a limited software library to support. A group of Microsoft developers could tweaking VirtualPC to handle all the current games. The reason for the comment about limited support for old XBox games could be.
1. They still do not have the hardware done so they do not know if it will be fast enough.
2. Some big seller like Halo2 breaks rules and goes right to the hardware.
3. They do not want it. They will make more money if you buy all new games.
4. It really will not matter. People with old Xbox games already own the XBox.

As to using .net odds are pretty good that VirtualPC already uses a jit compiler. I have a sneaking feeling that you will see a move to .net for XB360 development. It has so much freaking hardware that it might be fast enough to use .net for games. It would free Microsoft from being tied to the X86 which right now really is being kept alive by AMD with a large chunk of IBM tech like SOI.

Re:Nice Try

[Saige]

Well, remember how overstated the Xbox and PS2 were in regards to processing power when compared to the GameCube? When it came to reality, the GC was right alongside the other two consoles, even though they weren't claiming the same numbers.

Right now, the Xbox 360 and PS3 are being touted with these insane numbers that have no basis to actual GAMES - who cares how many FLOPS the PS3 can do, a very small part of the processing a game has to do is floating point.

Let's wait and see - in regards to the reality of what's created, the Revolution may not be far off the others.