Microsoft Dismisses Xbox Backwards Compatibility

kukyfrope writes "In a recent interview on U.K. site Kikizo Peter Moore, Microsoft's head of the Interactive Entertainment business, claims that Microsoft has 'under promised and over delivered' Xbox game compatibility on the Xbox 360. He states that gamers are now looking more towards next-gen titles, forgetting about the majority of Xbox titles." From the article: "Moore's comments shouldn't be misunderstood. MS will be adding to its backwards compatibility list, but it hardly seems like a priority now that the 360 is hitting its stride and the original Xbox is getting less and less support."

Comments

it was a priority until they sold some

[192939495969798999]

backwards compatibility would become an immediate issue if the 360 games stopped selling or really slumped in sales. Otherwise, why should they worry about it if they're making money? After all, earning a profit to M$ is customer satisfaction, because if customers weren't satisfied, they wouldn't be buying more games still, right? /end of work day cynicism dump complete

I call bull

[RogueyWon]

Look, sorry, I love my 360, think MS are probably actually now heading to win this round of the console wars and all that stuff...

But...

This article is bullshit.

Seriously, the backwards compatibility on the 360 was disappointing at launch, but we were promised it would improve. Since then, it has barely improved and many of the old A-list X-Box titles are still missing from the compatibility list. Hell, there are still major releases coming out for the X-Box which aren't compatible with the 360. Given we're now 6 months after launch, this is taking on the tone of a bad joke. The very few updates to the compatibility list that have appeared have been extremely short and have mostly been for C-list titles.

Burnout 3 (which I much prefer to Revenge), MechAssault 2, Chronicles of Riddick, Panzer Dragoon Orta and Star Wars Republic Commando aren't "forgotten" titles. They're titles which, as recently as 12 months ago in some cases, were being promoted as major, front-line titles. They're games I still get the urge to play on a regular basis. Hell, they're good. Many of these are among the later wave of X-Box titles which did so much to reclaim its credibility as a platform for games other than Halo. To still have these unplayable on the 360 is a farce.

Re:I call bull

[grumbel]

Hell, there are still major releases coming out for the X-Box which aren't compatible with the 360.

This is what is puzzling me, wouldn't it be rather trivial to allow developers to compile their newly released games for XBox360 as well and then just ship both binaries on the same DVD, so that the game could run on XBox as well as XBox360 out of the box? This however doesn't seem to be the case, this is a comment from the developer of Dreamfall, a recently released XBox Title:

Will it run on an xbox360 (emulated xbox) ?

Not for the time being, no. Microsoft alone makes the call whether or not to support a game through emulation, and if so, they'll issue a patch for download at a later stage. I hope they do, of course, but we have absolutely no say in that decision. They're good people, and they like the game, so maybe we'll get lucky. Fingers crossed.

http://ragnartornquist.com/?p=145

This really doesn't look like Microsoft has much of a plan on how to handle their backward compatibility properly when not even the developers themself have any say in XBox360 compatibilty.

Re:I call bull

[Blakey Rat]

What bothers me most is that Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, which I bought maybe a month before I bought my 360, I can't play on my 360.

I don't really mind the 360 not being able to play titles like Panzer Dragoon Orta (as it was basically a release title for the original Xbox, IMO, it should be near last-priority), but it should *certainly* be able to play all original Xbox titles released *after* the 360 was released! If only to not confuse shoppers looking for new games.

So now I can't pack up my old Xbox until they either add PoP: TT support, or I beat the game. Annoying.

That said, Panzer Dragoon Orta is an *awesome* game, and I wouldn't mind seeing it in 360-style HDTV or playing through it at least once more.

Re:In other words..

[emmetropia]

I'd done some research and I would like to think I know what i'm talking about. I did a study of the hardware in most consoles, and their average lifespan. According to the twelve theorem, which states the following:

Twelve.

I am lead to believe that the answer to your question is: twelve.

Pretty much the XBox 360 philosophy in a nutshell

[Anonymous Coward]

This is pretty typical. The XBox 360 marketing push seems to be all about, "if we messed it up, it wasn't important anyway".

Backward Compatibility, which the Wii and PS3 have and the XBox 360 doesn't: Not important, gamers didn't really want it anyway.

A tilt sensing controller, which the Wii and PS3 have and the XBox 360 doesn't: Not important, gamers didn't really want it anyway.

Free online, which the Wii and PS3 have and the XBox 360 doesn't: Not important, gamers didn't really want it anyway.

1020p, which the PS3 has and the XBox 360 doesn't: Not important, gamers didn't really want it anyway.

An HD-DVD/Bluray drive, which the PS3 has and the XBox 360 doesn't: Not important, gamers didn't really want it anyway.

But:

HDTV video, which the XBox 360 has and the Wii doesn't: Something gamers need!

Fancy nerd-porn graphics with lots of cores and shaders, which the XBox 360 has and the Wii doesn't: Something gamers need!

And of course, let's not forget that invisible line that separates $400 (A reasonable price!) from $500 (extortion).

Apparently it's easier to try to convince gamers they didn't want a feature, than it would have been to get that feature right in the first place.

Wrong...backwards-compatibility is important

[Mr_eX9]

The Xbox 360's selective backwards-compatibility is one of several reasons I chose not to invest in one. Sure, I can play Halo on my 360, but what if I want to play more obscure games like Otogi and JSRF? I have to haul out the Xbox.

Seriously, everyone has a handful of older and less-well-known games in their collection that they like to come back to now and then, but having to haul an entire console out of storage and hooking it up to the TV is a hassle. Sony is aware of this and made the PS2/PS3 backwards-compatible with all games, and have done the best job of it out of all of the major consoles. Nintendo is sensitive to retro-gamers to a lesser extent (it's not just a coincidense that the SNES, N64, and GameCube all have the exact same RCA cable/plug,) and now the Wii will be able to play GameCube games and will introduce the virtual console. Microsoft missed the boat on this one--backwards-compatibility is an extremely convenient feature, and the way it's been halfassed on the 360 is next to worthless compared to what the competition is offering.

I'm going to be entering college in the fall and living in a dorm room with 1-2 other guys. Obviously, space is commodity, and backwards-compatibility saves space. Is backwards-compatibility a make-or-break feature? No, but it's still part of the whole, and in my view, it demonstrates Microsoft's commitment to Xbox owners is limited to those who only bought topselling games.

Sorry Microsoft, your unenthusiastic attitude towards backwards compatibility is another decision that's tipping the scales against the 360.