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."

Re:it was a priority until they sold some

[grammar fascist]

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?

How else would you measure it? By listening to rabid Slashdot Nintendo fanboys?

"Still selling" is a great measure of satisfaction, next to hiring Zogby to do a survey.

Backward compatibility is very important...

[__aaclcg7560]

Why pay $60 USD for one XBox 360 game when you can get two or three XBox games for the same amount? If I was looking for a new console, I might get an XBox if backward compability is not there on XBox 360. (Not that I would pay $600+ for a console.) It'll be a while before there are some must die for XBox 360 games.

Re:Let's review

[Anonymous Coward]

SNES: Huge Success
Sega MegaDrive/Genesis: Huge Success
NES: Huge Success

Easy to say...

[freshman_a]

He states that gamers are now looking more towards next-gen titles, forgetting about the majority of Xbox titles.

Try telling that to my friends who own Xbox360s and complain that they have to keep their Xbox around to play a couple games they really like. Maybe they aren't the majority, but I know a few. I don't mean to come off sounding fanboy-ish, but that's one thing I think Sony did well. I only need to have my PS2 hooked up to play all of my PS1 and PS2 games.

That's some nerve...

[suv4x4]

That's some nerve to quote this from the article:

Moore's comments shouldn't be misunderstood. MS will be adding to its backwards compatibility list

and still call the article

Microsoft Dismisses Xbox Compatibility ...

Best Selling Games

[Slugburn]

My major complaint would be that they seemed to focus on the low hanging fruit, the games that were easiest to do, rather than on the best-selling games as was promised. I just checked the list and see that Soul Caliber II still isn't on it. I'm pretty sure that it sold very well. On the plus side, I see that they've added DOA 3 and Ninja Gaiden since the last time I checked, so they are indeed still working on it.

Re:Good move on their part

[ScislaC]

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. If we're talking this generation in which Nintendo hasn't released their system yet... you are aware that the Wii can play ALL GameCube games as well as will have all of Nintendo's back library available for download... right? It seems like Nintendo will be the only ones to get backwards compatibility right this go-round.

Re:Good move on their part

[dogbowl]

"pull a Nintendo" .. by offering 100% backward compatibility over multiplle generations?? I can only guess thats certainly what you mean, since the 360 sure as heck doesn't.

Re:In other words..

[Anonymous Coward]

No, but hard drives in Xboxes are magically starting to fail.

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

I've got a fifteen-year-old SNES that still works (aside from my having to replace a broken power jack). How many XBoxes are going to have a fifteen-year lifespan?

Re:In other words..

[Rob T Firefly]

I think milestones were set by Sony when they built what was essentially a stripped-down PS1 into the PS2, and Nintendo with its endless chain of GB upgrades. Being able to use those towering stacks of old games on the new machine - with optional upgrades, even! - is a damn neat feature that is going to sway some of the consumers nowadays.

Re:Backward compatibility is very important...

[Osty]

Why pay $60 USD for one XBox 360 game when you can get two or three XBox games for the same amount?

Most people don't go to the store and randomly buy a game. They have a goal in mind, like, "I want to pick up PGR3." Depending on the game they're looking for, it may not be available on other platforms. If I'm going to the store to buy a copy of PGR3 ($40-50), I'm not going to decide to pick up a copy of Burnout 3 and NFS:U2 ($20 each) instead. Games aren't as elastic as other products. If I go to a restaurant and order a Coke, you can give me a Pepsi or any other non-Coke cola product and I won't much care. If I go to the game store and ask for a copy of Halo, I will very much care if you hand me a copy of Killzone instead.

If I was looking for a new console, I might get an XBox if backward compability is not there on XBox 360. (Not that I would pay $600+ for a console.)

First, the Xbox 360 is $400, not $600 (that's the PS3 you're thinking about), assuming you're quoting in USD. Second, I think Moore is mostly correct about backwards compatibility. The goal is to provide value for your customers during the first few months of a console's life when there are not a bunch of games out yet (and those that are out are launch titles, which generally means "not all that great"). Sony does this with backwards compatibility. Nintendo has historically done it by keeping their launch prices low and expecting you to keep the previous generation console hooked up. Microsoft did it with the 360 by providing extra functionality like demos on Marketplace, Xbox Live Arcade, and Media Center Extender functionality. Backwards compatibility with Xbox games was tacked on because Sony's made it a mandatory bullet point.

Seriously, how many PS1 games did you buy or play on your PS2 in the last three years? I think I played one (FFIX) and purchased none. And the only reason I played it on my PS2 was because it was already connected. I certainly could've dug out my PSOne and hooked it up.

It'll be a while before there are some must die for XBox 360 games.

That depends on the user. I know a lot of people who bought a 360 solely for Geometry Wars (they've since branched out, but that was their killer app). Yes, a $5 game sold them on a $400 console. Personally, PGR3 and Geometry Wars was enough to get me to buy. Oblivion and Fight Night Round 3 were worth purchasing, but I'm really looking forward to Forza 2 at the end of this year. If you're a Halo fanboy, you probably won't buy a 360 until late next year.

They can do that for a simple reason

[Opportunist]

XBox: Hacked.
X360: Far from it.

That's pretty much what it gets down to. A game company, facing the choice between releasing a game for a hacked (and "old") console or one for a new, unhacked, will release for the latter. For a few good reasons:

Yes, there are fewer X360s than XBoxes around. But many people who have a 360 also have an XBox. I.e. they'll get it, whether it's for the X or the 360. If it's for the old X, they might get a copy instead of buying it. Can't do that for the 360.

Re:I call bull

[Keeper]

Everyone expected Microsoft to announce that Halo, Halo2, and maybe half a dozen other games would be back-compat at launch. They delivered over 200. To me, that qualifies as exceeding expectations...

Swing and a pop fly

[Recovering Hater]

Moore added, "More [updates] are coming, but at some point, you just go, there's enough, let's move on, or people aren't as worried about a game being backwards compatible - and I like to think we've upheld our end of the bargain in making at least two or maybe three hundred games backwards compatible."

And this attitude is what is irritating me. There are some must play titles that are still not on the list. Some games are just cool to play and how corny is it to have to keep the old xbox hooked up to the set along with the new one. Sony spoiled me. At least I know I am spoiled though.

Re:I call bull

[grumbel]

### It's far from trivial. Different CPU and different GPU.

Both architectures however are programable with DirectX, so unless you have something highly optimized for one architecture, it should be trivial to port via a simple recompile, especially when the porting is already taken into account right in the beginning. And even if there are differences in the API, it should be trivial for Microsoft to fix those. That 'porting' wouldn't be meant to create a full XBox360 version, but just a XBox version running on a XBox360, so I really don't see where there would be much difficulty involved.

### It's like porting a Windows game to run on a Power Mac.

PowerMac doesn't have DirectX, but OpenGL, thats a whole different beast. Porting apps from PowerPC to IntelMac for example is simple, different arch, but same API, porting apps from IntelMac to Windows PC on the other side is extremly hard, same arch but very different API.