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GDC 2007: Now even lower-priority: Xbox 360 backwards-compatibility?

Posted Mar 8, 2007 at 1:31PM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Xbox 360 Tags: backwards compatible, Brian Crecente, Chris Satchell, Microsoft

Even less of a priority now for Microsoft: the Xbox. - Image 1

Kotaku's Brian Crecente brought up a good point, and thus we ask: how in the Forerunner's name could this have slipped under the radar? He asked Microsoft game development manager Chris Satchell about backwards compatibility, and the reply was that Microsoft's team was still on it, but:

"At some point we're going to focus less on it... When you get to the end of this year there will be a reduced focus on backwards compatibility. There are so many 360 games out there. I don't know if it's important anymore."

Did back-compat drop in Microsoft's priority To-Do list? The justification that there are so many 360 games out there has to sit with another statement Chris made earlier: 50% of 360 owners don't own the original Xbox. From that perspective, it's like saying that as the market composition changes, the original Xbox segment becomes a smaller minority, and sooner or later, it'll probably be more effective to redirect resources on back-compats to other endeavors.

But then that brings up one question legacy Xbox gamers will ask: so, when or how many of our favorite games will be back-compatted before the axe falls (specific games dependent on each gamer's preferences)?

Oh well. Chris also said that XNA Studio Express is getting wide usage - we won't be surprised if, after Microsoft dims the lights on official backwards compatibility, and people still clamor for it, someone starts working on a homebrew Xbox emulator for the rest of the library. Unless that takes an exploit for it to work, or something, which starts raising some very uncomfortable questions... Just wondering.

And if you want to start the countdown now, well, start with January's back-compat update.

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Most of the top games are BC now and the one's that aren't probably can't be emulated without major bugs. The main problem for MS with BC was the fact that they didn't own the license to the video card in the original xbox. So basically they had to emulate a video card without knowing the full ins and outs. Sony should have better luck with the PS3 because they own and designed the EE chip.

# Good. — lmxloco 2007-03-08 15:42

Microsoft *should* stop focusing on BC. It's ridiculous to keep focusing on old, severely outdated technology just so a few select people can play an old game once or twice. It's a waste of their time.

BC is important at first because of the usual lack of launch titles, but once you get close to two years into a consoles life span, BC becomes much much less important. It's ridiculous to keep focusing on it. They failed to make every title BC, they basically lied to consumers about it, but now I feel it's a lost cause. They have more important things to put their time into by now, mainly on making Vista not a piece of crap.

# Halo? — Guest 2007-03-08 15:54

Do both halos work on xbox 360? Then those are really the only games your need.

# about time — Guest 2007-03-08 17:57

about time

# POOPY — Guest 2007-03-08 18:05

im a part of people not having the 50% of 360 owners don't own the original Xbox

# wtf — Guest 2007-03-08 19:58

"50% of 360 owners did not own an original Xbox"

What do you mean. That isn't a group of people, it's a statement/fact.

I didn't have a Xbox either but I bought a 360 to play 360 titles, didn't you?

# Good — Guest 2007-03-08 22:20

Like the guy above me said, I bought an Xbox 360 to play Xbox 360 games, focus on those.

The only game they still NEED to add is Morrowind, every other good game already works.

# Lie ? — Guest 2007-03-08 22:22

They didnt lie, they done all they could for every title that was possible just the same as Sony no more no less.

# All the best have been done — Guest 2007-03-08 22:24

All the big titles seem to now be working, Shenmue, Halo 2 etc ,most of the others are not worth bothering anyway particularly sports games as mast have a 360 alternative now.

# WTF — Guest 2007-03-09 03:48

ok so if my xbox 1 brakes down MS are going to replace it even though they are not producing them anymore.

If they are not going to make new xbox consoles and not support them then I want full backwards compatability for ***** sake.

They are still missing Mercenaries.

# Of course they would replace your Xbox — Guest 2007-03-09 04:28

If your Xbox1 breaks down and it is in warranty or an extended warranty then of course it will be fixed/replaced and if they didnt have a replacement I would think they may offer may even offer a choice of a 360 instead.

# . — Pyro 2007-03-09 09:54

still waiting for PGR2 BC

# emu? — Guest 2007-03-13 17:59

"we won't be surprised if someone starts working on a homebrew Xbox emulator for the rest of the library."

If a PC isn't powerful enough to get a full speed xbox emulator how the hell is the 360 going to do it?

PC's far outspec the 360. Granted they have to have a full fledged OS running in the background but even so with multiple core pc's the OS can run on one core and the emu could run on another. But we STILL do not have an xbox emu on PC's. There's just no way that there could be one written in xna.

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