The launch of any system is the most crucial time for backwards compatibility. Until the market is flooded with new games for the new console, the old ones are there to hold us over. But I still have some GameBoy, GBA, and PS1 games that I play, and not on their original hardware.
Casual gamers are going to want to play the games. It doesn't matter if it originally sold one million, or one hundred copies. They just want to play them, and they don't care about all this techno-mumbo-jumble.
Peter Moore, like executives at Nintendo and Sony, has to appease both gamer demographics — not an easy thing to do. A year ago May he had this to say on the subject: "Our goal is to have every Xbox game work on Xbox 360. You will NOT need to purchase a new "version" — your original games will work on Xbox 360." Of course, he just said this: "nobody is concerned anymore about backwards compatibility."
Did he lie? Did he break his promise? He broke a promise of good faith. Sony has done this many times with the PS2 and PS3. But Microsoft has been very up-front about the Xbox and Xbox 360. And remember: it doesn't matter what he said, what matters is how it was received. We all know it made a lot of people, myself included, angry.
Moore pulled a full one-eighty on the issue. Both the Gamerscore Blog and Larry Hryb (Major Nelson) have been back peddling for him this week. Hryb even devoted a portion of hispodcast to reaffirming Microsoft's commitment for backwards compatibility. Now why would he do that?
Article comments
1 - Dynamo of Eternia
Here's the thing I don't get. If so many people care about backwards compatibility, then why aren't they utilizing it?
Peter Moore pretty much said the reason that they won't continue with the downloadable updates is because not enough people are using them. They likely can track how many times the updates are downloaded. And if not enough people are downloading them, the it just brings up cost issues.
I am somewhat on the fence about this myself. On the one hand, I can understand why they would stop making the updates. On the other hand, I have downloaded the updates that have been available so far and would be interested in having more. However, if I have to settle for playing my old games on the old Xbox, I can live with it.
It does stink for those who do want the updates. But clearly, if not enough people are using this feature (which can be tracked in this case), then it must not be THAT important to many of them.
2 - gossett
that's bullshit i want xbox games to run on the 360 not some but all.how many people got rid of their xboxes because we were told every game would be compatible with the 360.i'm done trying to make xtra room for that big ass xbox just to play games that were promised to play on my 400 dollar system..no excuses just get it done
3 - Dynamo of Eternia
"that's bullshit i want xbox games to run on the 360 not some but all."
That would be nice and ideal, but it may not happen, unfortunately.
"how many people got rid of their xboxes because we were told every game would be compatible with the 360."
I don't know how many people got rid of their Xbox's, esspecially if they did so because of the specific impression that the old games would work on the new system, but if they did, then they were foolish in doing so.
While this current decision by microsoft to not continue to make the backwards compatibility updates does contradict their previous statements, they never did say that every old Xbox game would absolutely, positively be playable on the Xbox 360 eventually with no if, ands, or buts.
They said that there goal was to ultimately TRY and make as many of them compatible as possible, with the optimal goal being making them all compatible if possible (at least that's what it said in anything that I've read on the matter). They specifically said that the emulation process can be complicated, and they recognized the possibility that some games may be harder to make compatible then others. Plus, they likely do not want to create an emulation update that when put onto the hard drive would possibly interfere with any of the 360's main functions (including playing the newer 360 games).
So, logically, no one should have gotten rid of their Xbox until the updates were done and complete. If they got rid of it prematurely, then that was a case of bad judgement on their part.
However, I believe that this would only effect a handful of people anyway. As stated by Microsoft, there hasn't been enough interest in the backwards compatibility to warrant spending the cash on contnuing to make the updates.
"i'm done trying to make xtra room for that big ass xbox just to play games that were promised to play on my 400 dollar system..no excuses just get it done"
Well, again, it would be ideal for the compatibility to continue, and having 2 large systems set up is not exactly optimal, but there are reasons and excuses for what is happening. If you just choose not to see them, understand them, and realize them, then you're just forcing yourself to be blind to the reality of the situation.
For the recoard, I would PREFER for the compatibility updates to continue. I would prefer to see every Xbox game work on 360 (provided that the updates do not conflict with any of the system's other functions for any reason), but I can also accept the reality of the situation. I'm not thrilled about it either, but I can accept it.
I have downloaded to compatibility updates that have occured so far, so I've done my part in supporting them to try and keep them going. But, obviously not enough people have done this accross the board to make it work the trouble of continuing to do so.
If you really want to see backwards compatibility for this system continue, then I would suggest getting the word out there to as many 360 owners as possible in any way that you can to tell them to download the updates if they haven't done so yet. If enough people do so, then it could make Microsoft change their minds on this matter. But if not enough people are interested, then it doesn't make much sense for Microsoft to spend a ton of money on a feature that only a handful of people are interested in. They'd be better off making other features that a larger part of the overall audience would enjoy.