Microsoft dropping Backwards Compatibility?

I just listened to Major Nelson's interview with Peter Moore, and Peter explained what he meant with that quote.

[33:13] "I want to be clear that my comments were not about 'nobody cares'. Of course we care! And we're going to continue to get as close as we can to our stated target of every Xbox game being back. compat. to the Xbox 360. And I'm hopeful we get there."
[33:50] "I first of all want to apologize for all of the trauma I've caused."
[34:06] "We're gonna get as darn close as we can to that stated goal of getting every title done."

He said "nobody is concerned" because they reached the goal of the "top-selling games" that they aimed for.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

That seems to me like his statements caused a lot of backlash, which resulted in ol' Peter there's bosses suggesting to him that he should issue a statement to try to appease the masses.

And let's face it, backward compatibility is not a huge deal to every player, but it is a big deal to a lot of people. I have buddies who bought a 360 and immediately became interested in picking up older Xbox titles that they missed out on by not having an Xbox, which, while not a huge point of profitability for Microsoft I don't think, it is still something to think about.

Of course, as I type this, I am playing Knights of the Old Republic II on my Xbox because a) the 360 did not do a good job of playing the first Kotor and b) there is no simple way of transferring my saved data from my Xbox to my 360. This is actually an issue that I would be interested in Microsoft providing a solution to, but won't cry about should one never come about. Besides a current shortage of titles, this is the only problem I have had with the 360 thus far.

How ya doing, buddy?

I could have sworn Morrowind sold millions upon millions of copies. How are they at their goal then?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Morrowind was indeed a Platinum Hit. It may even have been a Best Of PH as well, although I can't recall exactly. Maybe someone can fill me in on that.

Moore's retarded anyway though. I like how he did a complete about face.

Hopefully they will continue to improve this though, yeah.

I was speaking idiomatically.

For those of you with 360's and games that are certified compatible how is the playback? I heard it used to be a little shotty. I'm sure they worked their asses off on both Halos, but what about the other games they had to release updates for?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

New BC update. Nothing too special.

June 2006 Back Compat titles added:

1. 4x4 EVO 2
2. Amped® 2
3. Bad Boys 2
4. Big Mutha Truckers
5. DOOM 3®
6. Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
7. Fatal Frame™
8. FlatOut™
9. Grabbed by the Ghoulies™
10. Intellivision Lives
11. LEGO® Star Wars®
12. Minority Report
13. MLB SlugFest 20-04
14. The Punisher™
15. RalliSport Challenge
16. Silent Hill® 4: The Room
17. Spawn® Armageddon
18. Spider-Man
19. Star Wars Battlefront™
20. State of Emergency
21. Zapper™

Additional Japanese-only titles:

Bistro Cupid 1
Flight Academy
Othello Seminar
Igo Seminar
Shogi Seminar
Mahjong Seminar

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by russ

That seems to me like his statements caused a lot of backlash, which resulted in ol' Peter there's bosses suggesting to him that he should issue a statement to try to appease the masses.

And let's face it, backward compatibility is not a huge deal to every player, but it is a big deal to a lot of people. I have buddies who bought a 360 and immediately became interested in picking up older Xbox titles that they missed out on by not having an Xbox, which, while not a huge point of profitability for Microsoft I don't think, it is still something to think about.

Of course, as I type this, I am playing Knights of the Old Republic II on my Xbox because a) the 360 did not do a good job of playing the first Kotor and b) there is no simple way of transferring my saved data from my Xbox to my 360. This is actually an issue that I would be interested in Microsoft providing a solution to, but won't cry about should one never come about. Besides a current shortage of titles, this is the only problem I have had with the 360 thus far.

They had the same problem with the PS2 though. I still have about 10 PS1 memory cards full of saved games despite the fact that the whole lot would sit quietly in the corner of a PS2 card barely denting the total capacity. At least you can plug PS1 cards into a PS2. Is there nowhere to plug an Xbox memory unit into a 360?

Also, I too am currently playing KOTOR 2 (again), it's a fuck of a game.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

What an awful BC update. Bad Boys 2? Big Mutha Truckers? Come on guys....

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Looked good to me. What do you want them to do release the games only you want? Lets have some common sense here. I see 9 titles on there that were highly rated.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Silent Hill 4: The Room is a good addition. I still need to play this game and I'd rather do it on my 360 than my PS2.

Double Post:

Originally Posted by Newbie1234

What an awful BC update. Bad Boys 2? Big Mutha Truckers? Come on guys....

I think it has been explained enough times that they don't try to make that shit backwards compatible; it just happens to work as an effect of recent changes made to the emulation engine.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I agree...Not much good in this round. Not only do I not own a single one of those games, I will probably never consider buying a single one of those games.

Except for Intellivision Lives, which I have for Gamecube anyway.

How ya doing, buddy?

I know a lot of people knock Microsoft's choices for their BC updates such as Barbie, Bad Boys 2, etc but you have to realize the process behind making a game backwards compatible.

The XB360 uses a different CPU architecture and video subsystem. There is no chip that just detects a Xbox game and runs those functions.

Software emulation is a more appropiate verbage for what Microsoft is trying to do. Every game they want to work on the 360 they have to code a software wrapper that takes the original execution and set up a translation that the XB360/XB game can understand.

As they are working on emulation, some titles will be easier to write a wrapper for than others. Similiar gaming engines may allow the work on one title to quickly carry over to 5 other titles. Think how well Mode 7 games worked on the first versions of Snes9x and ZSNES. Once they got the chip down, all the games ran great.

It's not that Microsoft is CHOOSING to do Barbie bla bla bla over Dead Or Alive 3, its that Barbie came free with porting another game or took 5 minutes of effort.

So people would rather they omit games that people feel are shitty rather than include them at all for "Backwards comptability?"

I was speaking idiomatically.

<shrug> Maybe someone's 7 year old daughter somewhere is having a really good time with Barbie. Maybe they just booted the game and it just came up?

I don't care either way. I bought a XB360 to enjoy next generation gaming. Anyone who cared for Halo 1/2 already have an XBox anyways and just about everything else is cross platform. Someone who cared for that generation owns a PS2/Xbox/Gamecube.

I'm not gonna give a damn about Rallisport Challenge when I'm playing Chome Hounds in a month.

BC is a bonus. A nice bonus but should not be a contention point.

Whether "functional" or not, there is PR appeal for saying our list is 300 games! (when people might use it for 10) then 10 games on Xbox works on the 360.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Although he's not stating it, the creator of Psyconauts is beyond pissed, he'd even offered to help with the emulator Code but MS blew him off.

http://www.doublefine.com/news.htm#13JUNE2006

Apprently, "TOP MEN!" are better than the guy who created the damn thing.

LOL, enjoy your Babie's horse adventure guys, ti's going to be a while before you get to play anything of real note.

FELIPE NO

Interesting, I wonder what that means if Microsoft doesn't even accept free help to speed up the BC process.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Newbie1234

Interesting, I wonder what that means if Microsoft doesn't even accept free help to speed up the BC process.

It means they're concentrating their efforts on improving the quality of service rather than pandering to the needs of people who if they were really desperate to play an old games, they'd play them on an original Xbox.

Hard though it might be to imagine, it's entirely possible that Microsoft aren't too fucked about backwards compatability and are concentrating on other things.

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by Shin

It means they're concentrating their efforts on improving the quality of service rather than pandering to the needs of people who if they were really desperate to play an old games, they'd play them on an original Xbox.

Hard though it might be to imagine, it's entirely possible that Microsoft aren't too fucked about backwards compatability and are concentrating on other things.

Oh? And a badly emulated Silent Hill 4 and Big Mother Truckers is "Improving the state of prefromance"?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Shin

It means they're concentrating their efforts on improving the quality of service rather than pandering to the needs of people who if they were really desperate to play an old games, they'd play them on an original Xbox.

Hard though it might be to imagine, it's entirely possible that Microsoft aren't too fucked about backwards compatability and are concentrating on other things.

Tim Shaffer is obviously pissed that Psychonauts is unable to reach an untapped market of that of Xbox 360 owners thus proving the importance of backwards compatibility.

Anyways, there's no denying that Microsoft doesn't care much about backwards compatibility and it's of course their decision in the end. However, I think they're making a mistake when they don't even accept free help to speed things up. Especially now when the 360 lineup is still so thin, in a couple of months from now it'll be meaningless.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Bad emulation is better than no emulation, if you ask me, Conan.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

What's the point of bad emulation? Nostalgia?

I was speaking idiomatically.

How is Silent Hill 4 badly emulated?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Stealth

What's the point of bad emulation? Nostalgia?

At least it shows they are making an effort at it. Perhaps it's not perfect now but maybe it will be improved in the future. Being completely unplayable seems like more of a downer than being moderately gimped.

At least, in the worst posisble case scenario, like the person has a 360 and the game but maybe their original Xbox broke, they can still play it as opposed to it just sitting there like a glorified paper weight.

FELIPE NO

God damn, I recently bought an xbox 2 premium and downloaded the emulation shit and run it on my xbox 2. I was fuckin surprised I can't play Prince Of Persia 2 or DOAU, some of the shittyest xbox games have been emulated to work on the xbox 2. I was wanting to play DOAU while this damn free 1 month xbox live lasted.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Of course they're not going to work. Xbox 2 must be some dodgy HK machine. You know the ones, they look like current gen consoles, except made of low quality lime green plastic and have pirate NES games built in. Super Fabio Brothers, Balloon Dyke, Ice Fumblers, Misadventure Island, they have them all! But you got ripped off big time man, those can be downloaded for free.

Anyway that really wasn't worth bumping the dead thread for sorry. Plus updates are still slowly getting there. GONNA CLOSE.

Edit: GONNA OPEN. =D

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by LivingDreams

God damn, I recently bought an xbox 2 premium and downloaded the emulation shit and run it on my xbox 2. I was fuckin surprised I can't play Prince Of Persia 2 or DOAU, some of the shittyest xbox games have been emulated to work on the xbox 2. I was wanting to play DOAU while this damn free 1 month xbox live lasted.

You have one free month of xbox live gold. Xbox live silver has unlimited free use. You can download games, demos, BC updates, dashboard updates, and post scores as long as xbox live is live. The only thing you can't do with just xbox silver is play online.

If POP2 gets a BC update 6 months from now, you'll still be able to download it with a basic silver account. As for DOAU, I'm sure MS wants you to buy DOA4, so I doubt that a BC update featuring DOAU will ever see the light of day.

There's nowhere I can't reach.