*spin-off* Importance of Backward Compatibility Discussion

If selling old games in HD has anything, its told the venders, publishers and developers that people will buy it.

Microsoft could sell an HD Halo pack and it would sell by the bucket load so why offer BC and lose your self some 'free' revenue?

Why cause the outrage from existing 360/ps3 customers for a little extra revenue? It is more important to keep as many customers as possible from previous generation by providing painless migration from existing console to the next.
 
Why cause the outrage from existing 360/ps3 customers for a little extra revenue? It is more important to keep as many customers as possible from previous generation by providing painless migration from existing console to the next.

BC on current machines is a mess so I think the average consumer will not be expecting much from BC next time around.

And considering the possible differences in hardware that might happen BC might be next to impossible to acheive at a level that'll be acceptable to offer to the consumer.
 
BC on current machines is a mess so I think the average consumer will not be expecting much from BC next time around.

And considering the possible differences in hardware that might happen BC might be next to impossible to acheive at a level that'll be acceptable to offer to the consumer.

They can always do it at the hardware level lol. It is going to be a billion dollar decision though.
 
They run like ass, even on my machine.

Not having EDRAM or the bandwidth it provides on desktop parts is the biggest killer

I think he was talking about original xbox emulators. Ive not tried any but if they don't work well its a software issue - nothing to do with the hardware. Ive got a few gamecube games running great on my system.
 
But at what cost? And that's even assuming emulation is even possible.

Backwards compatibility may cost a lot, but I think it's also worth a lot. It brings goodwill for one. Another thing is that it gives your current user base more reason to upgrade to your nextbox. If the next X-box is not BC with the 360, then there is little reason why they shouldn't take a good look at the PS4 for example. Current X-Box owners probably won't even look at the PS4 when they upgrade to the nextBox if it has BC.

That said, I'm not sure if it's possible to offer BC. I'm just saying that it would be worth quite a bit to have it.
 
Backwards compatibility may cost a lot, but I think it's also worth a lot. It brings goodwill for one. Another thing is that it gives your current user base more reason to upgrade to your nextbox. If the next X-box is not BC with the 360, then there is little reason why they shouldn't take a good look at the PS4 for example. Current X-Box owners probably won't even look at the PS4 when they upgrade to the nextBox if it has BC.

That said, I'm not sure if it's possible to offer BC. I'm just saying that it would be worth quite a bit to have it.

How often do you play Xbox games on your 360?
 
Isn't there already another thread with BC talk? IMO it really isn't worth it at the cost of other components. From the perspective of the console makers... if you want to play our old games? Buy our old console which will continue to be on the market for several years. New console owners should be pushed into buying the new games to grow the install base.
 
How often do you play Xbox games on your 360?

I'm playing Conker now, and finished Grabbed by the goulies some weeks ago.

Isn't there already another thread with BC talk? IMO it really isn't worth it at the cost of other components. From the perspective of the console makers... if you want to play our old games? Buy our old console which will continue to be on the market for several years. New console owners should be pushed into buying the new games to grow the install base.

What if MS can "sell" BC?
 
What if MS can "sell" BC?

As an add-on component, sure that might be profitable. But they would still need to design the system to support that kind of thing. Maybe it costs $25 to add that kind of support to the system and then they sell the add-on at $50? But then they could have put that $25 to include 3D glasses or something more interesting to the box. I still feel it's still not really worth it in the big picture.
 
As an add-on component, sure that might be profitable. But they would still need to design the system to support that kind of thing. Maybe it costs $25 to add that kind of support to the system and then they sell the add-on at $50? But then they could have put that $25 to include 3D glasses or something more interesting to the box. I still feel it's still not really worth it in the big picture.

I mean as software, not as hardware.

1) put Xbox 360 dvd
2) try to run the game
3) a dialogbox appears with a link (press a) to marketplace for buy and download the emulator
4) after installation, you can play the xbox 360 game(s)
 
I can bet that nextbox will have some form of BC. They are all about having your account everywhere and completely unification of their products. Atleast i can see Sony's issue because they can't include CELL and have not included BC for PS2 for a majority of this generation. I see no reason for Microsoft to nix 360 BC when it will be one of the most important things toward insuring customer loyalty(as in having a huge history in the console)outside of moving your 360 account and saves directly to the next console like you could the original 360 to the Slim, and i will bet Almighty that we will see that in Microsoft Durango.
 
Yeah I wonder how that worked out for them, I know the testing cost was enormous, but I wonder about the additional support cost.

That is a good point, it must have cost them quite a bit, but then again many people don't know the 360 had any back compatible titles if they bought one long after the BC debate first fizzled out.
 
I think BC is pretty important. We are in a new era. It didn't matter before cause we had a true generational jump with HD and online. Now all there is left is better graphics. There will be no more generational jumps until Virtual Reality becomes feasible.

When you guys buy a new PC, how would you like it if it's not compatible with your slightly older games? It's the exact same concept with HD consoles now. Plus the huge library for online that people have invested on.

If anything, forward compatibility should be the standard. Play your old games at better resolution/FPS just like a PC would. Microsoft might do that, but it doesn't seem Sony will.
 
I would hope Sony has done what they can to allow PS3 games (at least straightforward PSN ones) to be recompiled for PS4.
 
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