NEWS - Thursday, October 6, 2005
New Xbox 360 Backwards Compatibility News
NEW LIGHT SHED ON XBOX 360 BACKWARDS-COMPATIBILITY A number of Xbox games will be playable on 360 at launch, full details coming soon. Plus: what’s on your hard drive? Microsoft has shed a little more light on backwards-compatibility on Xbox 360 revealing that a number of Xbox games will be playable ’out the Xbox 360 box’ - sort of. Microsoft’s Peter Moore has commented that Microsoft "will probably be in a position in about two weeks" to post a list of Xbox games that’ll be playable on its next-gen console at launch on Xbox.com, although how many titles will populate this list isn’t mentioned. Neither have game names. Moore goes on to say that this list "will grow and grow and grow" and will "get updated as more and more games get through certification", suggesting that the company may be planning a larger backwards-compatible catalogue than previously expected. Due to hardware differences between Xbox and Xbox 360 emulation is required to play the older games on the new machine meaning - an update download. Moore explains that "There will just be an auto-update that you may not even be aware that happens" adding that "We will post an update on Xbox.com. We may even set up an email alert for people who are interested enough." "Bottom line, you will start seeing more concrete information in two weeks. We will post a list. The guys continue to pound through these games and the emulation is working well. After launch, we will continue to do it. Until consumers show lack of interest, then we will move on," We wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that certain backwards-compatibility updates would be pre-loaded on the Xbox 360’s hard drive, but either Microsoft isn’t prepared to share such information yet or it’s simply not in the company’s battle plan. And, erm, talking of Xbox 360’s hard drive, J Allard pops up in the same interview discussing what we’ll actually see pre-loaded on the storage device. He states there’ll be a custom soundtrack - essentially "a free album" - some video which includes a short ’making of’ documentary on Xbox 360, "other little video samplers, some gamer tiles, Hexic, a puzzle game." Basically what we’re doing with this extra content on the hard drive is starting to show users... Part of it is to get the gamers understanding the capabilities of the system and discovering more and encouraging them to discover. Part of it also is giving them an extra bonus for either buying a hard drive and adding it to the core or buying the premium system," Allard said.Source: http://www.computerandvideogames.com
