Microsoft announcing Xbox One backwards compatibility is good for the industry.

[kupomogli]

It was also a good move for Microsoft, because being able to play all your 360 games on your brand new Xbox One is a good selling point, no matter how much people want to make it seem it doesn't really matter. If you own a PS3/PS4 and only care about a handful of Microsoft exclusives on the 360 and Xbox One combined, with games I'm interested in being Lost Odyssey and Shadow Complex, then it's not that much of a selling point, but to the people interested in the Halo series, Gears of War, Forza, Fable, etc and want to still play those games, then it's a great selling point to get new people over to the next gen consoles. That's in addition to all the 360 titles, multiconsole included, also being able to take advantage of the Xbox One's capture features without requiring a capture card or external device.

I applaud Microsoft though, because now with the inclusion of backwards compatibility, which so far is limited, it may very well cut down on all third party remasters. It was fine with PS2 remasters because the games were never in HD and never in widescreen. But now we're going from HD to HD and the only major change in many of the games is going from 720p to 1080p and sometimes 60fps. Going from 720p to 1080p is noticeable, but it's marginal in comparison to the prior jump.

Instead of remasters of PS360 games to PS4 and Xbox One, I'd like to see remakes like what was done with Halo 2 and is going to be done with Final Fantasy 7. True graphical enhancement, not marginal jumps that most people will barely recognize the changes.

[The 1 2 P]

It was also a good move for Microsoft, because being able to play all your 360 games on your brand new Xbox One is a good selling point, no matter how much people want to make it seem it doesn't really matter.

Yes it's a good selling point but ultimately it was only done to appease actual Xbox One owners and potential owners. Microsoft has this really cool fan request website called Xbox Feedback(http://xbox.uservoice.com/) and they constantly monitor it for suggestions of what the Xbox community want as far as features and options on the Xbox One. Since this website started roughly a year or so ago backward compatibility has always been near the top of the list of the most requested features and Microsoft listened to their fans. This is also why they added voice chat messages(among other features) although they should have never omitted that in the first place.

One of my biggest issues with Xbox One was the fact that at launch and even till today it was missing several features that came standard on Xbox 360. Why the hell Microsoft removed or modified them for the worse(like the party system) is beyond me but they have been slowly adding these features back through their monthly firmware updates. I do love that they added backwards compatibility but I had no intentions of selling my Xbox 360 or PS3 so the lack of b/c on the current gen systems didn't bother me that much. But I would have at least liked for all of my digital games to have transferred over since they are on the same network and now it appears they will be making the jump too.

[sfchakan]

Bring back 1 vs 100 and Netflix Parties. I would probably buy an XBox One just for those again.

Also, how about letting us use our old XBLA games on the Xbox One? Couldn't hurt.

[Leo_A]

Too bad that Xbox compatibility probably won't happen.

While it would appear trivial to get the 360's original Xbox emulator going with this (And hopefully at the very least, a few such emulated titles will one day join the XB1's compatibility list like the portion of the Xbox Originals lineup that remains available on the 360's marketplace), a full fledged revisiting of the concept would be very much welcomed and likely extremely easy by comparison to the work needed to get 360 games going on this system.

They're both x86 based for instance, which quite possibly means that CPU tasks could be made to run natively by the XB1 with only the Xbox GPU needing to be emulated. And the "wrapper" concept would allow them to pre-patch Xbox software that received post-release support back in the day for another advantage.

[Greg2600]

Well, we'll have to see how much compatibility is actually going to come to fruition. I love the option on all systems, but I'm not quite sure how much it helps sales beyond providing a piece of mind. What was it a year or two ago, everyone had MS dead, and PS4 as king. MS comes out and supports their PAST platform, while Sony can't get a demo to work, and the tide shifts. Ha ha ha.

[The 1 2 P]

Bring back 1 vs 100 and Netflix Parties. I would probably buy an XBox One just for those again.

Also, how about letting us use our old XBLA games on the Xbox One? Couldn't hurt.

I have already requested them to bring back 1 vs. 100 on that website and I know several others have as well. As for XBLA games they are suppose to just appear in our game's list via an update once this backwards compatibility initiative gets into full swing.

[sfchakan]

Awesome. Too bad people can't download some games that were already pulled off the services. Aren't digital downloads awesome, kids?

[Leo_A]

While new purchases for delisted games are out of the question, we don't know yet if there's anything a publisher like Sega can do with delisted games like Outrun Online Arcade and Sega Rally Online Arcade.

I wouldn't hold my breath, but hopefully at least some delisted XBLA content becomes available on the XB1 for existing owners of said content.

[sfchakan]

I'm not holding my breath on those, either. I'm happy with people being able to at least download and play Shadow Complex and others.

[retroguy]

Meanwhile, I happily play old Wiiware games using a free app to install them via the Homebrew Channel. If there were an easy way to softmod my 360, I'd do that too, but if there's a way to do it, I don't know about it.

[CDiablo]

I applaud Microsoft though, because now with the inclusion of backwards compatibility, which so far is limited, it may very well cut down on all third party remasters.

It wont exactly do that but it is a win for gamers and devs. Gamers will have access to most likely 50-90% of the 360 games that they own. Devs have to greenlight any game for the backwards compatibility program. This gives them the freedom to say no if they want to do a remaster and not take a sales hit. This also lets devs sell last gen games and DLC from a dying platform on a platform that will become more prevalent as time goes on. Kudos to MS for pulling this off, I don't think anyone saw it coming.

[Lucifersam1]

I had no intention on getting an Xbox One (I pre-ordered a launch day PS4 from Amazon and love it), but this is definitely a game changer. I am leaning towards getting a One if the backwards compat library is good (L4D/2 needs to be included, with MP and DLC available!!!). That coupled with some of the XBox brand exclusives... may just be too irresistible for me to pass up.


It was also a good move for Microsoft, because being able to play all your 360 games on your brand new Xbox One is a good selling point, no matter how much people want to make it seem it doesn't really matter.

[BlastProcessing402]

It wont exactly do that but it is a win for gamers and devs. Gamers will have access to most likely 50-90% of the 360 games that they own.

50-90?

I'd be shocked if it even got to 25%. I'm thinking maybe 15-20% with the vast majority being first party because of that whole


Devs have to greenlight any game for the backwards compatibility program.

nonsense. Stupidest thing I've ever heard regarding a system including BC. Once you've paid for a game, no one should have to okay you being able to play it on hardware you own that's capable of playing it.

I'm not even saying a lot of pubs (and lets be real, it's pubs, not devs, that have to greenlight things here) I'm not saying they'll purposefully withhold games from it (other than some real jackhole companies) but just be indifferent to it and not bother to say it's allowed.

[TheBenenator]

Hmph. There are only two Xbox 360 exclusive games I'm interested in: Lost Odyssey and Tales of Vesperia. Oh, wait, the latter came out on PS3 in Japan, and the translation patch is at v1.0 now. So, one exclusive, if you go for that. :wink 2: I occaisonally hear of an Xbox Live Arcade game that sounds cool, but I'm not going to buy a digital-only game that's not on Steam or GoG, let alone on a locked-down console.

So overall, nope, still not going to get me to buy their current console...ever, most likely.

[The 1 2 P]

50-90?

I'd be shocked if it even got to 25%. I'm thinking maybe 15-20% with the vast majority being first party because of that whole

I think it will probably get to at least 30-50% before they stop due to how many games the Xbox One starts getting. They got a decent amount of exclusives last year and this year is truly packed(the final two weeks waiting for Rare Replay is nearly unbearable), especially during the fall. And next year seems pretty loaded with what's been announced so far as well. By the time 2017 rolls around there will be enough games on Xbox One that Microsoft will most likely take a very passive approach for the remainder of their backwards compatible Xbox One plans. For me personally I would like them to bring as many games as possible but ultimately it doesn't really matter because I will never get rid of my Xbox 360.

[Leo_A]

Not if they're smart...

I don't see any reason why it will stop anytime soon. It's not like the Xbox 360 situation where supporting a particular title wasn't exactly trivial due to the confines of the Xbox 360 that didn't allow the flawed emulator to be fully enabled, forcing game specific settings to be created in order to enable compatibility for each and every addition to the lineup.

Here by all accounts, supporting a particular title is largely a mere formality. So I suspect that we'll be seeing updates throughout the course of its lifespan, albeit diminishing in frequency and quantity as time goes on. This isn't going to be like the 360 where once Microsoft has decided that backwards compatibility had done its job to help smooth the transition to the following generation, there's little incentive for them to continue with what was an expensive project with significant ongoing costs.

When the groundwork is established and the investment has already been made with their emulator, they may as well take advantage of it since the additional per title cost is minimum.