Going back to your Roots...

[Black Dragon37]

Publishers and retailers have called on Microsoft not to forget about the original Xbox platform, pointing out the huge opportunities that still exist...

Something Microsoft's kinda forgotten about almost completely.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

What's the state of XB availibility? A long time back (last year?) we were hearing of shortages, and haven't nVidia stopped supplying XB chipsets now? I've always felt XB360 felt XB was kinda being cut off, and that'd make sense seeing as it loses money. Sure more software will appear for a time as that's profitable, but MS aren't concerned with 1st party titles are they?

 

[NavNucST3]

I find it strange that this article would come out now, I mean, MSFT had already announced that they were making no more games for xbox and I thought they had announced that no more xbox game units were being produced. Whatever market there is for the xbox for publishers/devs, I think it would behoove them to try and make sure it plays on the 360.

 

[pipo]

Officially they are still producing it (no first party games though) and I think there are 200 (!) titles coming out for the original box next year...

 

[Carl B]

Well, *officially* they may still be producing it, but it is true that NVidia has already taken final order for the chipsets. I think that XBox from here on out will be a difficult item to find new - as has been the case for some time now.

 

[Black Dragon37]

Well, *officially* they may still be producing it, but it is true that NVidia has already taken final order for the chipsets. I think that XBox from here on out will be a difficult item to find new - as has been the case for some time now.

Hold on...

Isn't Microsoft back to paying nVidia royalties because of backward compatibility and shit for the Xbox 360?

 

[Carl B]

Hold on...

Isn't Microsoft back to paying nVidia royalties because of backward compatibility and shit for the Xbox 360?

Yes, but that doesn't mean that there are further chipsets being manfactured. The last ones went out in August I believe. The royalties MS is paying NVidia for the 360 are strictly related to IP/emulation rights. Indeed, until now NVidia and Micrsoft didn't have a royalty agreement at all - it was a straight up contract for chipset sales, which NVidia manufactured themselves.

 

[Black Dragon37]

Yes, but that doesn't mean that there are further chipsets being manfactured. The last ones went out in August I believe. The royalties MS is paying NVidia for the 360 are strictly related to IP/emulation rights. Indeed, until now NVidia and Micrsoft didn't have a royalty agreement at all - it was a straight up contract for chipset sales, which NVidia manufactured themselves.

So what caused the fallout between them?

 

[Carl B]

So what caused the fallout between them?

The original fallout occured about a year or so into the XBox's life. Microsoft was not meeting at all the volume numbers promised to NVidia, and NVidia sought to have the contract renegotiated. After some time in court, there was a compromise reached and indeed the chipset cost went up slightly, in NVidia's favor. Now - since the chipset price was more or less fixed, and Microsoft (similar to their agreement with Intel) had not made a deal based on IP but actual product, Nvidia had the opportunity to leverage the increased volume and process improvements to lower their costs to the point where Xbox was quite profitable for them for the last few years. The straw that broke the camels back was basically MS going back to NVidia and asking for a lower chipset price, and NVidia basically saying no.

So MS went with ATI and we all know the rest. Except that since then MS has decided to implement backwards compatability, and since they could not emulate a workaround for NVidia's proprietary tech, they are back in NVidia's clutches, so to speak.

 

[Urian]

Perhaps I am wrong but I believe that the Xbox games are more based on the DirectX 8.0 API than the direct programming of the NV2A GPU.

In other words, few games in Xbox have used directly all the functions of the NV2A.

 

[Carl B]

Perhaps I am wrong but I believe that the Xbox games are more based on the DirectX 8.0 API than the direct programming of the NV2A GPU.

In other words, few games in Xbox have used directly all the functions of the NV2A.

Well, I can't speak to that. But whatever the case it was enough of an issue that MS felt it was worth licensing this tech from NVidia.

 

[Guden Oden]

and I think there are 200 (!) titles coming out for the original box next year...

You must be nuts to believe that! 200 titles, surely that's at least half the current xbox software library! With a new generation out, any software maker would be MAD releasing a title for an obsoleted hardware amongst such competition!

May I remind you each previous time a console's been superceded, the maker ALWAYS without fail ensures there will be ample software support over the next coming year at least (if not longer), and invariably that support fades like letters written in sand. Devs cancel some titles to not lose money because an obsoleted console immediately loses a lot of momentum, sales outlets start shuffling the old software aside to make room for the new, shelf space diminishes, people's attention for the old crumbles.

I guess only the original playstation was the big exception to the rule, not almost immediately dying.

If that 200 titles number is even close to correct, expect a big percentage to either magically jump over and become x360 titles, or else just disappear completely.

 

[seismologist]

It's almost a Dreamcast-like situation, what do you do when the manufacturer pulls the plug in the middle of a console's lifespan?

I dont think publishers are willing to support a dead console. Regardless of the userbase.
I'd imagine next year we'll be seeing many PS2/360 releases instead of Xbox 1.

 

[robofunk]

Isn't Microsoft making it easy for upcomming Xbox titles to be forwards compatible with the 360. Some developers might not bother but AAA titles might have 360 binaries.