Clean-up, aisle 6.
*spin-off* Importance of Backward Compatibility Discussion
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Well I hope MS continues to bring out more titles, work to make the current solution better and do more and more research on BC overall.
If their goal is to develop robust BC and emulation solutions with greater flexibility in terms of future hardware choices, then BC should be an ongoing project. And not something one gives the old college try at the start of every gen only to peter out because a perfect solution can't be obtained.
If their goal is to develop robust BC and emulation solutions with greater flexibility in terms of future hardware choices, then BC should be an ongoing project. And not something one gives the old college try at the start of every gen only to peter out because a perfect solution can't be obtained.
trainplane
Newcomer
I think if MS and Sony stick with AMD (hopefully they will still exist--if they don't, x86 license won't transfer to any company that buys them supposedly), we will see cross-compatiblity for future hardware. Then gone is the generational reboot. It will be more like iOS and Windows. More powerful hardware, but not fundamentally changed (GCN, x86).
Also what is interesting about this generation to me is that XBox 360 games don't look horrible today. The PS3/360/Wii U are the first consoles for me where you don't see "polygons" because of advanced normal maps and lighting. So I can play a 360 game on the Xbox One and not really think about BC. It's just part of the library. This wasn't true when I tried OG Xbox games on 360. I mentally had BC in the back of my mind.
Rurouni
Veteran
Guys, if MS do try to release BC at launch, don't you think it will do harm to X1 instead of helping the X1? Realistically, I don't think they can do good BC for launch even if they try very hard. Even at current incarnation, I think the BC isn't good enough because of very limited compatibility + some games can ran worse in certain scenario. If they tried to push BC for launch, the BC probably would be very bad that a lot of AAA game would actually ran worse on X1 thus will immediately ruin X1 image because it will give an image that X1 isn't really powerful.
Basically what I'm saying is that if BC want to be use as an advantage, they better do it early and they better do it right (high compatibility with good performance). Missing the early part then the BC will become irrelevant as time goes by. Missing the do it right (especially if they are releasing it early) will just damage the product (X1).
Basically what I'm saying is that if BC want to be use as an advantage, they better do it early and they better do it right (high compatibility with good performance). Missing the early part then the BC will become irrelevant as time goes by. Missing the do it right (especially if they are releasing it early) will just damage the product (X1).
Well yeah, having the wrong BC solution at lunch might have done more harm than good. Reading the tea leaves though, it does appear that MS had given up on BC a good while before release, and that it restarted (or at least gave it a huge push) when IBI Spncr took over.
I think its safe odds that we owe BC to project "save Xbox One" that included other good ideas like unbundle Kinect, releasing Kinect reserves to games (which might also have helped BC too, as even the six "game" cores had reserved time at first), remove the Live Gold tax on apps, and start marketing the Xbox One as a games-first device.
I really hope that MS gives out some BC use stats after the holidays.
I think its safe odds that we owe BC to project "save Xbox One" that included other good ideas like unbundle Kinect, releasing Kinect reserves to games (which might also have helped BC too, as even the six "game" cores had reserved time at first), remove the Live Gold tax on apps, and start marketing the Xbox One as a games-first device.
I really hope that MS gives out some BC use stats after the holidays.
Still preferable however you don't like PR speak. I haven't seen any useless stats on kinect use or kinect games.
Console usage isn't a statistic of sales or success in the market place, it is a generic measure of customer satisfaction with their product. Which truthfully I believe satisfaction with XBO is likely several points higher than what the public perceives, and MS tries to highlight this
Riddlewire
Regular
At first glance that sort of figure is useless, but I guess if you use it as a mean, you can deduce how much interest there is. In this case, let's say 1 million hours since launch, across 10 million consoles...that'd be 6 mins use on average per console.
If the total figure is substantial, we can see it has a more pronounced effect.However, use stats won't be terribly helpful. For one thing, MS and pubs would rather people be buying new content than playing old. And for another, the value of BC to the platform is getting people to buy into it. What we really want are hardware sales figures to see if BC is part of increased growth of the platform.
Well "use" would not include data like pause, would it even include "suspend"? It might include from when someone initially starts a session to when they finish the session - say a week later.
Hence the data is useless if presented how it usually is (ie you can spin it to whatever you want to say)!
Hence the data is useless if presented how it usually is (ie you can spin it to whatever you want to say)!
I don't think MS cares if you buy new or old content. As long as you're just buying content. With this backward compatibility support you no longer have to produce physical discs. You can just put the digital game for sale on the store. There may be a lot of people who never played the older 360 games, but they can still buy & play the content on the XB1(provided it's compatible of course). I keep harping on this, but this is what makes Microsoft's backward compatibility support unique. If you already own it, you can still play it. If you don't own, you can still buy it & play it.
Tommy McClain
MS likely make more money on new content, but certainly pubs and devs want you buying new content. Otherwise their current investments on new content will be wasted.
In order to sell content, first you need people to actually own your console. If you don't have that = no content sales. BC isn't to sell more (old) console predominantly - it's here to make the transition from X360 to X1 easier, so that those people, once they have bought the console, will also buy the content. If that is old content or new, is probably irrelevant; though with the progression in technology, the odds are that if you decided to upgrade to a next-gen console, that at least some incentive is there to also buy next-gen content for it.
While it's true that old software doesn't sell as good as new and that this seriously limits the appeal of including BC in the first place, hardware vendors must realize that it is still the best way to get a large portion of people to upgrade and remain exclusive to your console and eco-system.
It's why windows still sells itself. Or why iphone users tend to stay with iphone products. Android with Android. Because over time, you accumulate software, invest into the platform and people don't want to start back at scratch with new software etc. We are creatures of habit. For good or for worse.
While it's true that old software doesn't sell as good as new and that this seriously limits the appeal of including BC in the first place, hardware vendors must realize that it is still the best way to get a large portion of people to upgrade and remain exclusive to your console and eco-system.
It's why windows still sells itself. Or why iphone users tend to stay with iphone products. Android with Android. Because over time, you accumulate software, invest into the platform and people don't want to start back at scratch with new software etc. We are creatures of habit. For good or for worse.
It's definitely a factor for me for sticking with iOS if I get to choose a new phone soon, just as interoperability is (my iPad rings when my iPhone isn't picked up soon enough, and if I call someone using my iPad it will find my iPhone and use that automatically for instance).
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
And this is partly what keeps me in the Apple ecosystem. If you throw in a Mac too, you can make or take calls on the computer and send iMessages or text messages - the latter are sent to the phone then sent as normal.
Having full control over the hardware and software makes delivering this kind of interoperability seamless. Not that everything on Apple's platform are seamless, but they're pretty solid for me.
Can't get a better vote for backwards compatibility than this...
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-one-backwards-compatibility-praised-by-ubisof/1100-6428757/
Looks like we might see the Splinter Cell series. That's great! I wonder if that includes other Tom Clancy games too? And how about their series like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Trials & Call of Juarez?
Tommy McClain
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-one-backwards-compatibility-praised-by-ubisof/1100-6428757/
Looks like we might see the Splinter Cell series. That's great! I wonder if that includes other Tom Clancy games too? And how about their series like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Trials & Call of Juarez?
Tommy McClain
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
Maybe I'm cynical but man with things to sell is happy to be able to sell more older things with little other revenue streams to more people. I'm not sure this is entirely an altruistic response in respect of what's "good" for gamers
I think the context of the post was that given MS need to seek permission from the publishers to produce a backwards compatible version of their XBOX 360 titles, the CEO of one of the major publishers saying "this is great for us" is likely to result in fewer stumbling blocks in getting that permission.
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Maybe I'm cynical but man with things to sell is happy to be able to sell more older things with little other revenue streams to more people. I'm not sure this is entirely an altruistic response in respect of what's "good" for gamers
I think Wavey understood what I was getting at. However, your cynical response intrigues me though. Would you rather the CEO of a company that made your game say they would rather sell you a remaster before making their previous games backward compatible? Right now a lot of the companies are mum on how they are going to approach backward compatibility. So for him to stand up & give it a vote of confidence means other studios might as well. However, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them were looking at the BC vote list & wondering if they would make more money off a remaster instead. Some titles might make sense(Halo, Gears, Borderlands, COD). But for me personally I already own a bunch of games digitally. So I hope they are backward compatible. But I'm selfish like that.
Tommy McClain
That's why Windows offers a unique opportunity. Losing all my Android apps won't matter if I have access to my Windows apps which are a darned sight better (and they should be seeing as they cost proper money!).
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