Microsoft Exec: "If You're Backwards Compatible, You're Really Backwards"

[Covarr]

Only five percent of customers play previous-generation games on new gaming systems.

Okay, let's do some math. 77.2 million Xbox 360s sold worldwide. Even assuming a third of them are replacements or a household's second console, that still leaves 51.46 million users. That means Microsoft is pissing off a solid 2.57 million people. Just pause for a minute and think of how many of those people, knowing that whatever they get they won't be able to play their 360 games on it, will choose to buy a PS3 or Wii U instead. How much potential profit Is MS losing because of that? I can't say, but certainly enough not to ignore it.

Now, I understand why they're doing it. Much like with the PS4, the Xbox One uses a vastly different architecture than its predecessor; x86 instead of PPC. And you know what? That's actually a decent reason. But to publicly make a statement that backwards compatibility is boneheaded? That just makes them look even worse than they already do this week. This kind of excessively defensive publicity is the last thing they need.

P.S. Thanks

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Calling someone backward is like calling some one retarded. So you are calling people retarded for wanting BC? Now i think BC is worthless and not a big deal, but i wouldnt say those that want it as dumb, i can understand why they want it. But MS thinks they are retarded for wanting it? Yeah, im a xbox fan, had both xbox and 360 and it seems i read more and more reasons to make me not worth buying the xboxone. MS.....you insulting your fanbase your retard......you backward company. Why not just apologise and say you couldnt make BC happen, even if its a lie and you couldnt be bothered, thats fine. Just insulting your user base isnt the way to go.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Microsoft, you're not really helping yourself here. Coming out and telling part of your consumer base, even if it is as small as you say it is, that they're basically wrong for wanting something is only going to alienate that part of your base. And seeing as your consumer base at the moment is already on shaky ground, why would you want to rattle the cage even more? I'm really interested in the Xbox One now because I want to see what happens to it. It truly is shaping up to be at train heading for a cliff, and comments like this one are simply adding fuel to the engine.

 

[iniudan]

Yet another wanker in a suit.

It makes me laugh, surely it wouldn't cost that much to put an emulator in there, then you have an entire back catalouge to fall back on if your launch line up is shakey (given the trends of the lastest gen machines it wouldn't surprise me). Why is the DS so much better then the PSP? It has a constant flow of new AND old titles.

Actually it would be very easy to put an emulator in there. Has the whole system of the Xbone is based on an Hyper-V architecture. Basically there is a Hyper-V controller OS, a VM with an OS for more general task and a static configuration VM for gaming (that way they can change the actual hardware or update the general task and controller OS, while the development hardware always stay the same), they could easily have added a VM that virtualized the Xbox and Xbox 360 hardware, if they really wanted.

 

[nodlimax]

Did I just see another "Deal with it" a-hole from Microsoft? They really really must want lose their customer base.

Somehow I can't wait for the triple A publishers to have a major crash....

 

[DrOswald]

I always think that it is funny when people like this man pull such statements out of their ass. I mean, why even comment on it if it isn't a big deal?

Also, I would bet everything I own that those figures have been manipulated to the point that they are practically lies.

Plus, they were quite stupid in how they announced this. At least Sony had the good sense to sound sorry that they could not include the feature. Microsoft's tone is basically "backwards compatibility is stupid any you are stupid for wanting it."

 

[Ukomba]

Backwards comparability is why I went out of my way to get an older version PS3 rather than the newer ones. I simply don't have the room to have multiple game systems connected to a tv. No backwards comparability means I'm sitting this generation out. I'll stick with Steam, and, yes, even Origins.

 

[Zeraki]

Congratulations Mr. Mattrick, you just kicked up a hornet's nest.

This should be an interesting show.

 

[matrix3509]

Yeah because every 360 on earth is totally gonna last 10 or more years right? Tell me how backwards I am when I'm out $2000+ worth of games and see how far you can run after I've entered blood-rage.

 

[el_kabong]

While I kind of disagree in the way the exec said it, I certainly fall into the large majority mentioned. Once I get a shiny, new toy, my old toys seem less shiny. I had a backwards compatible PS3. You know how many PS2 games I played on it? Zero.

Is backwards compatibility a neat feature? Sure, but it's far from a deal-breaker for me if the system is without it.

 

[ShadowTrooper-A-E]

Great job Don! Your dumb ass statements is ALL that MS needs right now and we will laugh when your pay takes a cut or are demoted and if MS back you up then fuck you ill miss halo and gears (can not see how you can make a sequel after 3's ending) but if this console is this bad and your execs become dumber and more vitrol than EA then take a hike and dont comeback till you shape up.

 

[GenGenners]

My offer of the shovel from the other thread still stands, Microsoft.

 

[badmunky64]

just another reason for me to make the switch to the ps4

 

[rofltehcat]

I think they are looking at this from the completely wrong angle. Who cares if only 5% of the customers actually play their old games? It surely means something to more than that if the question is brought up so often. It is also about retaining their current player base. People might be less inclined to switch to the PS4 if they'd be able to play their massive games library on the new console.
Especially with the 360 being such a fragile POS so notorious to break. Oh your old 360 broke? Buy a new 360 or upgrade directly a Xbone instead for a little more? Even if you can't afford any games with it (as compared to buying a 360), you can still play your old games until you got the money to buy new Xbone ones.

It'd also make the system much more interesting for people switching from the other consoles or even getting fresh into the whole console gaming thing. Take the WiiU for example and the mess it is currently in... backwards compatibility would have made the library problems much less severe. It'd allow customers to get instantly into franchises that might release a new game in 3 months, especially xbox exclusive ones.

And I'm calling BS on the emulation thing. The whole machine is more powerful and the only problem is that their processor has another architecture?
They got access to every single thing making both consoles work, how could writing a perfect emulator be such a problem? It can't possibly be a problem to emulate the old hardware on their new hardware when they have complete access and control to stuff like the OS and drivers/hardware.
It is not like they are trying to write an emulator for a multitude of pc specs while reverse engineering the whole thing.

Not really angry or anything, not getting any of the consoles either way... but I really doubt that making the thing backwards-compatible wouldn't make the thing much more desirable and thus increase their profits.

 

[antigodoflife]

God damn it, "Xbone", really? Not only is that phonetically a disasterpiece, it's just nasty to say and really just makes me uncomfortable, no matter how appropriately brosome it is.

I'm sticking to "X1", sounds a lot more classy, which - sure, it's quite possibly the least classy console ever made, at least since the Milton-Bradley Vectrex, but even the most cripple-minded deserve respect enough to not be nicknamed the fucking Xbone.

 

[anian]

So Microsoft is hiring again tomorrow, I presume.

This is really a backward mindset, they're trying to add a billion features that my TV already has and sell it as brilliant, while something as basic and (well relatively) simple as "oh, btw you'll be able to play all the games you already have so you have a big library from the start" does not seem to them like added value...well that's understating it, their strategy is to insult people who actually think this is added value.

Most people turn the lights on when they walk into a dark room, to see better, but Microsoft's policy seems to be not only to keep the room in the dark, but to break the light and then attack people when they come into the room.

 

[iniudan]

I always think that it is funny when people like this man pull such statements out of their ass. I mean, why even comment on it if it isn't a big deal?

Also, I would bet everything I own that those figures have been manipulated to the point that they are practically lies.

Plus, they were quite stupid in how they announced this. At least Sony had the good sense to sound sorry that they could not include the feature. Microsoft's tone is basically "backwards compatibility is stupid any you are stupid for wanting it."

I so want to hear them say that about Windows, then see all the pissed off IT and manager. Windows take so much room on the disk in great deal because it is a steaming pile of backward compatibility, has each time they lose one of their main developer they basically have to legacy the feature they were working and just start a new feature from scratch if they want to upgrade, has no one else know how to work the code they left behind, usually.

 

[NiPah]

Way to sound like a dick, instead of just coming out and saying they can't be backwards compatible due to hardware limitations they had to come up with a stupid catch phrase which at worst insults a segment of their customer base, and at best insults a company which caters to them.

I mean shit, is PR such a foreign word to Microsoft these days? You can spin stuff like this anyway you please but this is downright sticking the middle finger up to their customer base for no good reason!

 

[Trishbot]

When I bought a 3DS, you know what I did?
I bought a crap-ton of regular DS games I missed out on. My "3DS" library is 80% wonderful DS games.

And when I missed out on Xbox and got an Xbox 360, I still managed to buy Jade Empire, KOTOR, Halo 1 & 2, Doom 3, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Ninja Gaiden Black, and Dead or Alive Ultimate and 3 to tie me over through the transition.

 

[Maerx]

Maximum Rustle. I wasn't gonna buy an Xbox One anyway, just gonna upgrade my rig and maybe get a WiiU when it gets some freaking games.