Microsoft Adds Backward Compatibility to Xbox One

[Covarr]

Microsoft really, really, really wants me to buy an Xbox One. Between this and their Oculus Rift streaming announcement, I don't know how I can not get one. This'll be the first generation I've ever bought all of the major consoles.

Can the Xbox One handle the Oculus Rift? Don't you need a high framerate and resolution to be able to use it without feeling nauseous?

It cannot. But that's not what this does. Remember that feature they announced where Windows 10 can stream games from an Xbox One? Well, they're including support for that in Oculus Rift out of the box. It projects the games onto a virtual screen in a virtual living room.

This might seem kinda crappy and pointless when you could just play the games on a real TV in a real living room, but it could be nice if the TV is in use, and it'll definitely be nice for folks like me who have a small living room and a small TV.

What I'm really hoping for, though, is that this doesn't just work with games, but with all apps. VR Netflix on a giant virtual screen is something I've wanted for a while.

P.S. Thanks

 

[inmunitas]

Microsoft really, really, really wants me to buy an Xbox One. Between this and their Oculus Rift streaming announcement, I don't know how I can not get one. This'll be the first generation I've ever bought all of the major consoles.

Can the Xbox One handle the Oculus Rift? Don't you need a high framerate and resolution to be able to use it without feeling nauseous?

It cannot. But that's not what this does. Remember that feature they announced where Windows 10 can stream games from an Xbox One? Well, they're including support for that in Oculus Rift out of the box. It projects the games onto a virtual screen in a virtual living room.

This might seem kinda crappy and pointless when you could just play the games on a real TV in a real living room, but it could be nice if the TV is in use, and it'll definitely be nice for folks like me who have a small living room and a small TV.

What I'm really hoping for, though, is that this doesn't just work with games, but with all apps. VR Netflix on a giant virtual screen is something I've wanted for a while.

P.S. Thanks

Wouldn't the better and cheaper option be to just get a gaming PC and stream games and Netflix from your PC to your TV? You could also then watch a film with friends in a virtual cinema over the internet, rather then sat quietly in your room alone with a box strapped to your head.

 

[Covarr]

Wouldn't the better and cheaper option be to just get a gaming PC and stream games and Netflix from your PC to your TV? You could also then watch a film with friends in a virtual cinema over the internet, rather then sat quietly in your room alone with a box strapped to your head.

I usually watch movies and TV alone anyway, that doesn't concern me so much. What does is that I do not have physical space for a big TV. With oculus rift, the virtual screen in a virtual room can be in theory as big as I want (I dunno what limitations the Xbox-Rift streaming will have on this), but almost certainly bigger than my real TV.

The best option at hte moment for a virtual TV for this is to just virtualize your entire desktop and run desktop Netflix. This solution is really laggy and not very pleasant, at least on my current PC with Rift DK2. I plan to upgrade for consumer Rift, but I don't know that a virtual desktop like this will even be supported on consumer version.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Fox12]

This is excellent. I'm a little bit confused about how you can just add backwards compatibility, though. They make it seem impossible/expensive. This is a good sign, though. I was worried that backwards compatibility was dead. I guess the losing console can always bring it back, though, to get ahead. I hope Sony is paying attention. This is the kind of positive change that Microsoft needs. I've already chosen my console for this generation, but I hope other companies take this into consideration.

Compete, Sony, your taking your victory for granted.

 

[Flammablezeus]

So now the Xbone is only slightly worse than the 360? Awesome. Get rid of the silly paywall to unlock multiplayer in games and we're all good. Maybe try encouraging LAN options too, y'know for people who don't have amazing internet and just want to play with a friend without super-lag and disconnections galore.

 

[Supernova1138]

I'm with you and all, but that's gonna be a REAL tall order since the PS3 was a nightmare in development never the less to develop for. To have their system emulate it? I mean that's gonna be hell. The cell processor is powerful but hard to make for vs the 360's 3 core processor it's a very harsh difference.


Really, they should have this function in because there's no reason to upgrade to these new gen consoles. Half the games are remasters and the rest are on other platforms such as the previous gen and PC and there's nothing special. But if it was "hey it also plays the last gen games' then hey, maybe there'd be reason to. It's why I got a PS2, 3 etc.

So, again, I agree with ya but ... probably not gonna happen too fast.

The 360 was close enough to x86 architecture to make this possible. The ps3 was entirely proprietary and has been recognized as a mistake on Sony's part as an attempt to purposefully obfuscate how to maximize performance because Sony was actually afraid that developers would tap out the machine too quickly. So that makes this considerably more difficult to emulate than the 360 was. I'm not sure the ps4 would be anywhere close to capable of emulating the ps3 even with it being 50% more powerful than the XBO. That's due to the uniqueness of the ps3 rather than pure power emulation.

If it is powerful enough to do that? Then yeah, they can do the same thing. But at least Sony has an excuse and has resolved the problem by moving to x86. Microsoft has had this capability since launch.

I simply don't know how much of a power demand PS3 emulation is. I will add that this is not backwards compatibility. This is only backwards compatibility for 100 games.

Ah I see, that makes some sense in a strange Sony sort of way. So those developers were not lying when they said the 360 was easier to develop for? I was an obliviously bliss casual back then and did not care to look into these points, dismissing them as PR static all too quickly.
Well they do have so many planned remasters to glean sweet monies from. We can only dream of noble aspirations, but I feel Sony might be a little too complacent since the ps4's initial success.

The good news is that now that both consoles have moved to x86 architecture that all future generations should be backwards compatible or they're full of shit.

With our luck they'll make the 9th generation consoles based on the ARM architecture just so that they can break backward compatibility, or due to not wanting to pay whatever Intel will be asking for CPUs in 2020 or so.

 

[Willinium]

. . He. . Hehe. Hehaha. . Hahahahaha! Finally! No longer shall my hundreds of dollers be left to waste in the dust! Finally after so long of refusing to buy a new 360! Whoo!

As you can tell I greatly enjoy this.

 

[Ritchian]

Well... Part of me wants to complain about how few titles they're starting with, but ya know what? About damn time somebody does something. The latest console generations have seemed so dead set on either making you pay all over again for games you bought before or have been eager for you to forget the older games exist. As far as I'm concerned, backwards compatibility is a big feature that new consoles have no excuse not to have. Reversing that trend of not having backwards compatibility, even if it's only a bit at a time, is a good thing.

Good job Microsoft.

...Wow, I don't remember the last time I actually typed that without it being sarcastic.

 

[SKBPinkie]

If gears 3 gets on there, I have no reason to keep my 360. Oh, and forza horizon. Horizon 2 is really good, but the first game is better.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Microsoft really, really, really wants me to buy an Xbox One. Between this and their Oculus Rift streaming announcement, I don't know how I can not get one. This'll be the first generation I've ever bought all of the major consoles.

Can the Xbox One handle the Oculus Rift? Don't you need a high framerate and resolution to be able to use it without feeling nauseous?

It doesn't support the Rift, not powerful enough. The streaming feature just allows you to use the headset like a monitor.

 

[lacktheknack]

Well that's not backwards compatibility then is it? that's porting 100 games. No dice

There's something kind of sick in how people will just turn their nose up at up to 100 free ports.

 

[dystopiaINC]

Well that's not backwards compatibility then is it? that's porting 100 games. No dice

There's something kind of sick in how people will just turn their nose up at up to 100 free ports.

It's a system that lets you play your old games on our new console sure "only" 100 games are gonna be available when the featured goes live but that is obviously gonna be expanded on. Apparently Preview members can already test the feature with 12 games already ready to play. This is a good thing, why do people have to be so bitchy about it?

 

[JonnyHG]

I was intrigued until I looked at the current list and laughed.

http://www.winbeta.org/news/xbox-one-backwards-compatibility-first-batch-supported-xbox-360-games-announced

 

[Evonisia]

I wonder whether the feature that tells you how much time you've played on those games will be brought to the One if you download it to the One.

I mean, I'll never know how much of my life I've spent on Black Ops II (well, at the very least 13+ days on multiplayer), Gears 3 or Halo 3, but it'd be nice to know for the future.

If gears 3 gets on there, I have no reason to keep my 360. Oh, and forza horizon. Horizon 2 is really good, but the first game is better.

I'm salivating at the thought of playing Gears 3 with a Xbox One controller, thanks for prompting this thought.

 

[Zacharious-khan]

Well that's not backwards compatibility then is it? that's porting 100 games. No dice

There's something kind of sick in how people will just turn their nose up at up to 100 free ports.

Its because Microsoft is not my best buddy and putting back into consoles something that others have had for years isn't putting them ahead it's almost putting them on par. and it's not free, those are games i bought. its something for convenience that they took away. and are now acting like saints for giving back.

 

[Lightknight]

The good news is that now that both consoles have moved to x86 architecture that all future generations should be backwards compatible or they're full of shit.

With our luck they'll make the 9th generation consoles based on the ARM architecture just so that they can break backward compatibility, or due to not wanting to pay whatever Intel will be asking for CPUs in 2020 or so.

Well, if they did that then they'd both have to do it at the same time and we'd have some legitimate oligopoly complaints to levy against them.

The reason why they were able to produce relatively low cost machines was purely because of x86 architecture. It reduces development costs by a significant margin too. The degree of savings involved here are so extreme that going back would be to risk everything just to try and sell old games.

But let's be honest, unless they have a steam sale, who is going to buy old games at $10-15 that they're never going to play? Not a ton of people, not really. I mean, I loved Halo and Halo 2 but I'm never going to play them again unless they're entirely remade (not remastered).

 

[direkiller]

How can they just throw it in after the fact?
Is this something only new Xbox Ones will be capable of doing, or did the console have this capability to begin with and Microsoft couldn't be arsed to make use of it?

Having backward compatibility from the beginning probably would have helped counter the PR nightmare surrounding the console's launch. Since apparently they can add and remove features whenever the incentive strikes them.

well it's not console based backward compatablility
It's an online service
you pop the disk in and it downloads an XB one version of the game,

 

[fluxy100]

Oh so we're doing to same thing as the 360 where some old Xbox games just wouldn't work cause Microsoft couldn't comprehend why someone would want to play something like "Strangers Wrath" and you're just outta luck if you want to play that game

 

[lacktheknack]

Well that's not backwards compatibility then is it? that's porting 100 games. No dice

There's something kind of sick in how people will just turn their nose up at up to 100 free ports.

Its because Microsoft is not my best buddy and putting back into consoles something that others have had for years isn't putting them ahead it's almost putting them on par. and it's not free, those are games i bought. its something for convenience that they took away. and are now acting like saints for giving back.

They didn't have to give you ANYthing, like Sony. Why are people in this community so all-or-nothing? That's supposed to be MY schtick. ;__;

 

[alj]

Why do people celebrate something that should have been part of the console from the start ? And its like 100 games ! And one about original xbox games ? As pathetic as it is the hardware in a XBOX ONE is plenty powerful enough to emulate original xbox games.

Meanwhile on PC i think yeh i think i can get any DOS game or BASIC game or win 95 game to run just fine thank you.