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."

Let's review

[MBCook]

• GameBoy Color - Played every GameBoy game, huge success
• GameBoy Advance - Played every GameBoy and GameBoy Color game, huge success
• Nintendo DS - Played every GameBoy Advance game (save one or two), huge succes
• PlayStation 2 - Played every PlayStation game, huge success
• Wii - Slated to play every GameCube game, as well as selected games from the last 25 years, probably a huge success
• 360 - Said it would play every XBox game, doesn't. We'll see.

Good move on their part

[Jorkapp]

I applaud microsoft for having backwards-compatibility on the X360. Sure, it's not perfect compatibility, but it does allow me to play some of my old XBox games on my X360, making for a nice transition as I acquire more X360 titles.

Certainly, it could be more compatible, but you do have to give them credit for what they have done. Sony was able to do this better as they did not change the underlying architecture (PS1 - MIPS R3000, PS2 - MIPS R5900), whereas Microsoft has (XBox - x86 P3, X360 - PPC Cell).

I can say from experience that writing programs for PPC is a whole new ball game when you're used to x86, and I can only imagine emulating x86 code on PPC being somewhere along the lines of a total nightmare.

Certainly, I do have some disappointment that it isn't 100% backwards compatible, but at least they didn't pull a Nintendo by offering absolutely no backwards compatibility.

Re:Let's review

[l3prador]

360 - Said it would play every XBox game, doesn't. We'll see.
They were pretty upfront about not being able to play every game.

Re:Good move on their part

[antime]

Backwards compatibility in the PS2 is actually achieved by including the PS1 CPU. Normally it acts as sound and I/O controller, but when you run a PS1 game it becomes the main CPU. The fact that they both use MIPS architectures is more or less irrelevant.

Now that the PS2 has been shrunk to basically a single chip maybe Sony will use the same approach in the PS3 and include a complete PS2 (which in turn contains a PS1)?

Re:Good move on their part

[Babbster]

You're talking about the Gameboy line and GP is presumably referring to the fact that Nintendo had the SNES, N64 and Gamecube which all went without backward compatibility. Given that the Xbox and Xbox 360 are home consoles while the Gameboy line is portable, this is an obvious inference.

Re:In other words..

[joshsisk]

The console's been out for almost five years, so we're nearing the MTBF on the hard drives, and the hard drive locking makes them nontrivial to replace.

I have a friend who replaces Xbox hard drives and other parts for parts+$20/hour. It can't be that hard to do. Besides, they still sell Xboxes, if you are that hard up for one. True, they won't in 10-15 years, but by then, I really doubt people will care that much. Also by then, most of the games will be available as downloads for whatever consoles are the succesors of this current gen.

From the 360 web site...

[Hamster Lover]

Taken from the backward compatibility FAQ on the 360 web site:

Q: Are you intentionally trying to keep a game off the list because you want us to buy the Xbox 360 version?

A: Not at all. Our goal remains to get every game to be backward compatible. The only things influencing what games we're working on are how popular the title is, and how easy it is to make backward compatible. Several original Xbox games on the list already have Xbox 360 counterparts.

Emphasis mine.

Seems that eventually they want all games to be compatible. True, Microsoft hasn't claimed that every game is compatible right now. From what they've said, they certainly leave you with the impression that games on the compatibility will run fine and anyone with a 360 knows that is simply not the case. Compatibility is improving every month, but regardless of what Microsoft claims there will be many games that never make the list. It's just not worth the effort.