*spin-off* Importance of Backward Compatibility Discussion

[joker454]

It's interesting how bc has always been put down as not needed, no one cares about it and no one plays old games anytime the argument of it's importance came up. But given how XB1's bc has hit top story in so many places (even on non tech websites) and given how many threads it has spawned here, I hope people can finally accept how important bc really is. Well probably not, but to the rest of the media and gaming populace now you can see that yes it is hugely important

On that note, was there any mention if old Kinect games would work? I know that's a long shot but who knows.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

It's interesting how bc has always been put down as not needed, no one cares about it and no one plays old games anytime the argument of it's importance came up.

You may be mistaking importance for surprise. The announcement about backwards compatibility was a huge surprise and for some b/c is a big plus. If it's as big an issue you you seem to think it is there will no doubt they'll be a measurable increase in Xbox One sales.

 

[goonergaz]

Yeah Joker, BC was so important PS3 dropped it and still managed to claw back the X360 lead (while X360 added more games to their BC list).

The surprise and (incorrect) thought that some people need it might give a bit of boost but in reality I hardly ever used it on PS2 or PS3 and don't miss it at all, it's nice to have a bit of nostalgia now and then (emulators and old consoles) but that's it - I'd much rather play a remaster.

Having said that, if it's improving the games then I'd definitely replay RDR with it!

Edit - oh, it seems RDR is leading the vote

 

[babybumb]

Its obviously mainly a PR move to make people feel good about buying a console that has this feature that they may or may not ever use beyond testing a few games. They want it even if they never actually use it

Without any guarantee specific game will ever even be supported they still like to think it will. Then they forget about it after buying the console because of BC promise. Job done for MS

I dont buy its only a licensing issue if a game will come. Its never that simple. Tech issues should be expected

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It's interesting how bc has always been put down as not needed, no one cares about it and no one plays old games anytime the argument of it's importance came up. But given how XB1's bc has hit top story in so many places (even on non tech websites) and given how many threads it has spawned here, I hope people can finally accept how important bc really is. Well probably not, but to the rest of the media and gaming populace now you can see that yes it is hugely important

No. The argument was people wouldn't pay a premium for BC (or want a gimped console using outdated hardware for the sake of BC). BC for free - of course that's valued. And importantly, how much so will be revealed in XB1's sales figures, not media attention. So the increase in XB1's sales in response to this will show how much BC with no added cost increases the value of a console.

On that note, was there any mention if old Kinect games would work? I know that's a long shot but who knows.

Kinect doesn't work. MS explicitly mention this. Link is somewhere in this thread.

 

[Jay]

bc is one of those situations where usage doesn't equate to value.
telemetry tells them that bc is hardly used, yet one of the biggest requested features is bc.
if it helps give people a push to upgrade from a 360 to x1 then it could be very valuable regardless how much it's actually used.
there's a lot of people who's stuck with previous gen.

 

[Nisaaru]

Yeah Joker, BC was so important PS3 dropped it and still managed to claw back the X360 lead (while X360 added more games to their BC list).

The surprise and (incorrect) thought that some people need it might give a bit of boost but in reality I hardly ever used it on PS2 or PS3 and don't miss it at all, it's nice to have a bit of nostalgia now and then (emulators and old consoles) but that's it - I'd much rather play a remaster.

Having said that, if it's improving the games then I'd definitely replay RDR with it!

Edit - oh, it seems RDR is leading the vote

IMHO BC becomes more important because games don't age as fast anymore.

While PSX1 games became unplayable for me when I had a XBox and then a 360. I still played a few XBox titles with a 360 and I see no reason why most 360 games aren't still be worth playing when you have a XB1. The graphics difference isn't that huge and the genre matured to a level that they'll remain interesting.

 

[goonergaz]

IMHO BC becomes more important because games don't age as fast anymore.

While PSX1 games became unplayable for me when I had a XBox and then a 360. I still played a few XBox titles with a 360 and I see no reason why most 360 games aren't still be worth playing when you have a XB1. The graphics difference isn't that huge and the genre matured to a level that they'll remain interesting.

People said that initially PS2 to PS3 also some PS3 games were getting long in the tooth and I'd 100% play a remastered RDR than plat it on BC

 

[NRP]

I remember when the 360 BC supported Halo 2 it was a pretty huge deal. A lot of OGXB folks jumped on the 360, because H2 was a pretty huge online MP shooter at the time. I know I'm looking forward playing some Halo Reach MP when it gets XBone support.

I think BC is important, albeit not massively so. It does add value by protecting your legacy game library.

 

[Nesh]

People said that initially PS2 to PS3 also some PS3 games were getting long in the tooth and I'd 100% play a remastered RDR than plat it on BC

I still have some 360 and PS3 games that I havent finished. BC would have been a pleasant convenience for me if my PS4 could play PS3 games. Despite that BC wont be much used, it definitely plays a significant role in maintaining market share

 

[goonergaz]

it definitely plays a significant role in maintaining market share

I'm not sure there's much evidence to support that, I mean, Sony dropped BC on PS3 and it didn't harm it.

 

[Nesh]

I'm not sure there's much evidence to support that, I mean, Sony dropped BC on PS3 and it didn't harm it.

Thats because there were other things that were harming it even worse before the BC was dropped. Sony had to take measures to get rid of other things and dropping BC was one of the measures they had to take. BC was not removed with everything else remaining constant. Also I feel that this generation people have more desire to keep their last gen games than in the past and I think one of the reasons is the appearance of digital games.

 

[AzBat]

I think I re-iterate a thing that gets glossed over: this is the first time your DIGITAL games are backward compatible & carry over from a previous generation. I don't think you can equate this new backward compatible support with previous attempts.

Tommy McClain

 

[Shifty Geezer]

How much of a compromised/more expensive console are you willing to take to have the latest, greatest games play worse so that you can still play your old library? Put a dollar value on it - that's the importance of BC to you. Get an average of people's dollar values - that's the importance of BC overall.

 

[Nesh]

How much of a compromised/more expensive console are you willing to take to have the latest, greatest games play worse so that you can still play your old library? Put a dollar value on it - that's the importance of BC to you. Get an average of people's dollar values - that's the importance of BC overall.

But how much compromised is the XB1 now compared to when it was released? How much of that compromise is noticeable to the average joe? The consoles are closer to parity now than ever, and the XB1 has evolved a lot in terms of features. It is sold cheaper too. Not to mention that it is getting lots of exclusive games that look impressive despite its weaker performance on paper.

 

[Davros]

On that note, was there any mention if old Kinect games would work? I know that's a long shot but who knows.

As I understand it the games have to be recompiled so you put in you old game and the xb1 connects to ms's servers and downloads and installs the recompiled version onto your console
so not all games will have bc

 

[NRP]

How much of a compromised/more expensive console are you willing to take to have the latest, greatest games play worse so that you can still play your old library? Put a dollar value on it - that's the importance of BC to you. Get an average of people's dollar values - that's the importance of BC overall.

But is it correct to assume BC automatically adversely affects future hardware? I mean, I'm sure it would have in the PS3->PS4 case, but perhaps not so much in the 360->XBone case.

It seems like you can plan for these things at least somewhat so that it's not a foregone conclusion.

 

[function]

As I understand it the games have to be recompiled so you put in you old game and the xb1 connects to ms's servers and downloads and installs the recompiled version onto your console
so not all games will have bc

Not recompiled.

Repeat: not recompiled.

It's a genuine emulator. Kinect isn't supported though, as they can't emulate it (using Kinect 2).

 

[function]

But is it correct to assume BC automatically adversely affects future hardware? I mean, I'm sure it would have in the PS3->PS4 case, but perhaps not so much in the 360->XBone case.

It seems like you can plan for these things at least somewhat so that it's not a foregone conclusion.

There was no plan for BC when the X1 was designed. It was sheer badassery on MS's part that meant they were able to achieve something that even long time hardware/software professionals were shitting on.

It's like the Xbox 360 having OG Box BC - there were "experts" employed by major IC companies even here at B3B insisting that these were recompiled games and that this was not emulation.

 

[BRiT]

As I understand it the games have to be recompiled so you put in you old game and the xb1 connects to ms's servers and downloads and installs the recompiled version onto your console
so not all games will have bc

You understand slightly wrong. They are not recompiled. They are repackaged. The same orignal game executable and package is injected into a package that has the x360 system. This repackaged image is what you download from the xbox live servers.