5) Why Hasn’t Xbox One Always Been Backwards Compatible?
The news that Microsoft’s flagship console will soon be supporting games from its predecessor the Xbox 360 was considered quite the coup for one of gaming’s biggest hitters, but the announcement does raise one rather damning enquiry…
Since the console will apparently support the previous generation of games from their original discs and with no extra work required on the part of either gamer or developer, then why wasn’t this always a possibility? Surely nothing that Microsoft have altered in the console’s software could have meant this was a recent revelation, so why not work on it from day one?
The announcement itself was accompanied by the explanation that Xbox One developers supposedly “did not know the feature was possible,” but the feature is going to run using a simple emulator that will be embedded as a program into the already PC-like console. Given that third party developers have been able to craft old generation console emulators for years, surely this was always a foreseeable option?
The explanation that it took the feedback of Xbox gamers to convince Microsoft that the feature was a desirable one is also a very flimsy defence, and before long it’s likely that this supposedly grand announcement may be seen for the marketing hold-off that it really is…
