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Article on Backward compatible 360

CaptainABAB

Member
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/224103_xboxback13.html

But as recently as last week, a Microsoft executive said the Redmond company hadn't yet determined whether the new Xbox 360, set for release this year, would be backward compatible.

"We don't know yet, as scary as that is," said Peter Moore, an Xbox corporate vice president. He cited "a host of technical issues" for the uncertainty, without being more specific.

Although Microsoft didn't make any announcement yesterday on the subject, Moore said it should know the answer to the backward-compatibility question by Monday, the day of its briefing at the E3 game conference.

I'm surprised they don't know now but might by Monday.

Pachter wrote that the situation may come down to whether Microsoft is able to license patented technology from one of the processor vendors for the original Xbox, letting it use that technology to enable backward compatibility in the Xbox 360.

My take? It depends on how far along they are in programming and testing the emulator - obviously, they don't want to promise something if they can't deliver. And if it only works for 50% of the games out there or performance isn't as good, then they would be better off not promising anything until launch.
 
Maybe they're waiting to see the feedback of the games they just showed. If it's positive enough they might be able to save some dough and not include it. But if the reaction was negative( as it has been) maybe they would include it to sweeten the pot for launch. Who knows.
 
GONZO said:
Maybe they're waiting to see the feedback of the games they just showed. If it's positive enough they might be able to save some dough and not include it. But if the reaction was negative( as it has been) maybe they would include it to sweeten the pot for launch. Who knows.


they have a LOT more to show you know.. yesterday wasnt E3.
 
I don't think MS is really working on it. I think they're just trying to delay the official announcement and backlash as long as possible, until they can build demand out of the upcoming X360 library.
 
In terms of cost - I think the only impact would be whether it requires additional hardware/chips/etc.

If it's just software, I think MS would have no issue with eating that one time cost for the benefits of BC.
 
Fatghost28 said:
I don't think MS is really working on it. I think they're just trying to delay the official announcement and backlash as long as possible, until they can build demand out of the upcoming X360 library.

Yeah, to say that they won't know till monday seems like horseshit on so many levels.
 
Razoric said:
bullshit MS knows... yeah they'll know for sure by "monday" :lol :lol

the issue isn't about hardware capabilities or software limitations its Legal... as in our lawyers are working on. MS can not announce bc without having the legality issues worked out. Technically speaking, MS stated months ago that 360 (Xenon at the time) was powerful enough to emulate.
 
jedimike said:
the issue isn't about hardware capabilities or software limitations its Legal... as in our lawyers are working on. MS can not announce bc without having the legality issues worked out. Technically speaking, MS stated months ago that 360 (Xenon at the time) was powerful enough to emulate.

so yeah their lawyers will be working overtime on Sunday. :lol :lol

right... they know and it looks like a "no". they are just waiting to show more to soften the blow.
 
Damn all this is on Monday and Tuesday? That's earlier than I thought .. I thought it was like next Thursday or something. Nice.
 
Razoric said:
so yeah their lawyers will be working overtime on Sunday. :lol :lol

right... they know and it looks like a "no". they are just waiting to show more to soften the blow.

You think lawyers work banking hours? Of course they fucking work on Sunday... especially when you have a gaming expo the following day.
 
CaptainABAB said:
I don't get how waiting till Monday will soften the blow...?

I think the strategy is this:


BC is a big deal to us when there are no X360 games to be excited about. MS hopes that we will all fall in love with PD0, DOA4, PGR3, Gears of War, etc. and so want an X360 regardless of whether or not it has BC.

By delaying the announcement of no BC, they hope they can bury that one piece of bad news under a mountain of good news announcements. Announcing no BC before the good stuff comes out might be more harmful to X360 hype.
 
CaptainABAB said:
In terms of cost - I think the only impact would be whether it requires additional hardware/chips/etc.

If it's just software, I think MS would have no issue with eating that one time cost for the benefits of BC.

Actually, much of the technology of the Xbox GPU is proprietary and owned by NVidia. If games used the "official" Microsoft API they'd be fine, but most games accessed those proprietary calls by going the the "metal" of the chip. Microsoft would HAVE TO PAY Nvidia to allow this emulation, if it's even 100% possible in software. And it wouldn't be a one-time cost most likely. It would be a royalty on each and every system with BC sold.

Microsoft could try and challenge that legally, but that opens up a door on the PC software side that Microsoft NEVER EVER wants to be opened.
 
Razoric said:
so yeah their lawyers will be working overtime on Sunday. :lol :lol

right... they know and it looks like a "no". they are just waiting to show more to soften the blow.
Possibly :lol

Allard on stage:
"Look Square/Enix!!!! Isnt it exciting!!!!!? We have the *cough*no bc *cough* best publishers and games line up ever!!!!!"
 
Razoric said:
so yeah their lawyers will be working overtime on Sunday. :lol :lol

right... they know and it looks like a "no". they are just waiting to show more to soften the blow.


you don't know much about lawyers, do ya.. they live for overtime. Thats when they get paid the most,.

but hey.. yes or no, you got me. not long to wait though!
 
Alcibiades said:
lol

"know by monday"

my bet is no, though maybe they say that they can't make determination till closer to launch...


Yeah...MS could just string people along for months by leaving it open ended with a "we're working on it, honest!".
 
jedimike said:
You think lawyers work banking hours? Of course they fucking work on Sunday... especially when you have a gaming expo the following day.

yeah kinda like cramming for an exam before monday right? this isnt college... they know what they will be announcing on monday. dont be so naive.

just like others have said, it's an obvious "no" and they are just waiting to pile it under a ton of good announments.
 
jedimike said:
You think lawyers work banking hours? Of course they fucking work on Sunday... especially when you have a gaming expo the following day.
Do you honestly think that between today and MS, they will have made a final decision regarding BC? Cause, I seriously doubt that there is any MS lawyer working the issues between now and Monday.
 
olubode said:
Do you honestly think that between today and MS, they will have made a final decision regarding BC? Cause, I seriously doubt that there is any MS lawyer working the issues between now and Monday.

my point exactly.
 
Spike said:
It will have backwards compatibility.

Rev has it. PS3 has it. X360 will have it.

denial1.jpg


(Don't ask - Google image search.)
 
Unless they actually plan to say 'yes' to BC next week, I wouldn't expect MS to say anything about it for a few months.
 
bitwise said:
they have a LOT more to show you know.. yesterday wasnt E3.
Oh yes... and let's not forget about the proverbial "Day 3 Surprise Game".
 
kaching said:
Unless they actually plan to say 'yes' to BC next week, I wouldn't expect MS to say anything about it for a few months.

if it is indeed a "no" i fully expect them to BS us well into Xbox 360's lifecycle.

"not yet but we are working on it"

by the time they come out and say it isnt happening, not as many will care.
 
Yeah, I can see MS announcing that the X360 won't be BC but there will be an adapter available "soon" to play Xbox 1 games...and then they delay that adapter several times until it is ultimately cancelled two years from now.
 
No HD-DVD, No killer app(like GTA, GT, FF), No backward compatability, No chance in hell of winning this gen


Yeah, I can see MS announcing that the X360 won't be BC but there will be an adapter available "soon" to play Xbox 1 games...and then they delay that adapter several times until it is ultimately cancelled two years from now.


:lol :lol :lol

When I was reading the other threads I thought people were talking about the game BC making or breaking the 360. I was like WTF it didn't look that good. no sleep
 
i would say its a problem with a chip or card manufacturer. they are a company emulating one of their products on competitive hardware.

im sure they want a pretty penny for the right to do so. the free emu scene means fuck all to a commerical venture.

so i would say its safe to assume its possible. so if m$ cannot come to an agreement with the other party, the emu scene will take care of the, eventual, hacked box.
 
Conference times:


SquareEnix = May 16th 11am
Sony = May 16th 3pm
MS = May 16th 6pm
Nintendo = May 17th 9am
 
I can't believe that MS operates this way, but they do.

If you remember, the first X-box was going to use AMD chips instead of Intel. It was all set to go, they had banners made up fro the press conference, everything. Then at literally the last hour, AMD came back and wanted to redo the contract, MS said no, just made a call to Intel, they said no problem, and that was it. I can't believe that on the day you make a huge product announcement thats been in planning for months/years, with a 5 year life cycle, you dick around with one of the main components of the machine right before its unveiled, but they did.
 
I'm more inclined to believe they do have BC

I mean they blew their load in a shitty way already...what can they do on Monday to suprise us other than announce BC
 
If BC was in the plans it would have been announced., I think MS is just stalling for some reason. If I were a reporter at E3 I would grill them hardcore on the issue until I got a straight answer.


Me: So is BC included?

MS Rep: Well we're working on it now, but no official statements can be made yet.

Me: SO how much do you think the lack of BC is gonna hurt the 360 at launch?

MS Rep: But i just said we were working on it....

Me: yeah....sure... When exactly was the decision made to exclude BC?


MS Rep: But........
 
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