Why you can't play Xbox 360 games on Xbox One - developers talk backwards compatibility

OXM UK -"The Xbox One's inability to play Xbox 360 games hasn't gone down too well among the budget-conscious, but some hold out hope that Microsoft will eventually introduce backwards compatibility via system updates, rather than porting over individual titles on an ad hoc basis. The firm dropped hints to this effect during a Q&A earlier in the year, remarking that "we are exploring ways to bring gamers' favourite content to the new Xbox, but do not have any additional information to announce at this time."

[DxTrixterz]

Why because if they did nobody would be buying 360s. Duh

[KonsoruMasuta]

But more people would be buying XboxOnes, so it balances out.

[nukeitall]

I think a backwards compatible in hardware Xbox One in the future might be possible. Heck, maybe even the original Xbox compatibility.

That would truly be an all in one box.

For now, that is prohibitively costly for both MS and Sony. If you want Xbox One features, while gaming on Xbox 360, just hook your Xbox 360 into your Xbox One.

Voila, problem solved!!!

[BDSE]

Hasn't hurt sales of the XBONE so far.

[KingDadXVI]

Not really. To have enough hardware power to employ BC through emulation would have driven the cost of the console even higher, probably $600 or more.

The did not want to have that high of a price.

[nypifisel]

There won't be any BC in either XBO or PS4. I don't get why this is so hard to understand: YOU WRITE PROGRAMS TOWARDS A HARDWARE! Which means any BC unless software emulated (resource heavy) is out of the question unless the previous consoles hardware is represented in the new platform (Which is expensive, you don't want to pay for it). Feasible would be Gaikai for Sony which we know is on the horizon or something similar on Xbo. K thx

[rainslacker]

@nuke

If it's not in the hardware now it likely won't be possible unless MS makes a new SKU.

The 360 uses a RISC based processor, whereas the X1 uses a CISC based processor. This isn't the end all of emulation for the system, however, the difference in power isn't significant enough to really emulate the RISC based processor at full speed.

Emulation is possible, but you wouldn't like the results.

Even more powerful desktop PC's which use a similar architecture to the X1 aren't able to emulate the RISC based architecture of the X1.

It could possibly be done through streaming on the cloud, but to date, MS hasn't shown a lot of interest in really getting BC working on a significant level.

I don't believe that future SKU's would add hardware for this either. The idea of console production is to reduce costs, not add them. It's one reason Sony removed BC from the PS3. As time goes on, BC becomes less important, as most people move on.

I would say though, that given that new consoles don't offer the same leaps in quality as prior generations, that prior gen games would be viewed as playable a lot longer. Just my thoughts though, I'm sure some will disagree.

[come_bom]

Microsoft wants to do the same thing Sony does, sell the same game twice to the same consumer by releasing a special edition/pack/repack (or what the hell you want to call it) of the X360 game on the X1.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

Yeah... anyone who says that they are doing it for the sole purpose of reselling games should either:

1) Try emulating the Xbox 360. Oh, and make sure you emulate it so that it runs on the XB1's architecture too!
(Good Luck with that! Not even greedy selfish PC pirates can do it on their "easy-to-develop-open-sou rce-platform" LOL)

OR

2) Try making a machine that runs 2 different architectures that:

- fits inside a small box
- that doesn't have over heating problems due to being inside a small casing
- and that doesn't cost a fortune to manufacture

Again, Good Luck with that!

[Dark_king]

@Outside_ofthe_Box
really emulating the CPU for the 360 or PS3 is going to be no easy task.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

@Dark_king

Exactly. My point is that they aren't doing BC because it is very difficult and the costs of doing it isn't beneficial. Most people think adding BC is an easy thing to do and that they aren't doing it because they want to resell you games.

[HeavenlySnipes]

There really isnèt much point to it

The reason it worked for PS2 remasters was because the games on the PS2 ran at 480p. The PS3 versions ran at 1080p and 60FPS and added trophies

Are you gonna rebuy a game just because it went from 720p to 1080p for $40 when you can get the same game for $10 with a slightly lower resolution?

[Volkama]

You need a surprisingly decent PC to just about emulate a Sega Saturn effectively :) I don't think we'll be seeing 360/PS3 backward compatibility or emulation any time soon.

Streaming services on the other hand...

[SilentNegotiator]

No one has a gun to your head to force you to buy the game twice. Just keep the original game and system.

[rainslacker]

For the time being we don't know how either company is going to approach it. The remakes of last gen were actual enhancements to the original games, so that warranted charging for them. Digital copies of the original product through emulation were an option, however PS1 games were BC on all PS3 models. PS2 games were spotty when the hardware was removed.

Gaikai will likely serve as PS4's BC route. I'm ok with that so long as I can put in my original games and not have to rebuy them. It's not ideal, but it is what it is. Not sure if this will work though, as I'm not sure if the PS4 can actually read CD discs.

I'm still upset that Sony doesn't have PS1 emulation in software for the PS4 though. It's been readily available on much less powerful PC's using similar hardware for years now, since before the PS2 released in fact. If they try and monetize that I won't support it and will criticize it, however, Sony has no real obligation to make it work on every system they produce. It would just be nice if they did.

[Dark_king]

@rainslacker yes it can read CD's it has a dvd laser in there so that can read cd's.

[zeal0us]

Well if they do come up with a solution you will more than likely have to re purchase the game, buy something to run the game itself or just pop out the old 3-6-0.

[aquamala]

why let you play the games you already bought when they can sell them to you again ?

[ziggurcat]

why play X360 games on the xbone when you already own an X360?

[garos82]

cause I wanna sell 360 to buy the over priced xbone.

[cyguration]

I still have a PS2, but playing PS2 games via PS3 hooked up to an HDMI compatible TV just makes more sense, no?

[KonsoruMasuta]

1)Because some people trade in their old consoles and put that credit towards new ones.

2)It would also be good for people who didn't own a 360 last gen but are going with the X1 this gen. They might want to buy some older titles they didn't get to enjoy last gen.

3) Your 360 RROD'd and you have a pile of games for it. It wouldn't make sense to buy a new 360 so close to the end of the console's life.

[buynit]

Cause i dont want a ps3, ps4,360 and xb1 all hooked up in my living room...

[bleedsoe9mm]

@buynit if you haven't played every single game over the last 8 years , ps+ means you almost have to keep the ps3 plugged in

[hduce]

@buynit Try having a Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Ps3, PS4, Ouya, and Pc hooked up to a Tv. Thank goodness for my 7.2 receiver and a hdmi splitter.

[nevin1]

I never owned any Xbox system, but if I ever jump to Xone, It would of been nice to try out Original Xbox and 360 games.

Sony is bogus for not including BC. Not even PS1 games. All PS systems(PS1,PS2,PSP, PS3,PSV) has that feature but PS4.

[creeping judas]

PS3 had limited run of BC consoles. I believe they were the original phat 40 or 60 gb ones. Then they took the feature out, with a newer patch of PS3's. Can't recall why though?

[nevin1]

@creeping judas

Actually, my point at the end was just focusing on PS1 support. All PS systems can play PS1 games but PS4. PS3 still supports PS1.

[Dark_king]

They never patched out BC they just never added it to most of the models .The original 60 gig and 20 gig in the us had the ps2 EE chip and the original 80 gig in EU had software emulation.(I don't know if they patched out the EU Software emulation though).The reason they took it out was there was no money in it for them.Having the hardware in the system made it expensive,and coding a emulator really was not making them money.

[HeavenlySnipes]

The price of the console

The chip for emulating made the PS3 expensive

[nunley33]

I still own the 80gb phat ps3 BC model that came with motorstorm in 08,that was through emulation but all still play ps1 discs. Yeah it was never patched out and the Bc still works for any BC ps3 you can find out in the wild.I bought the memory card adapter for ps3 back then to use and copy my ps1&ps2 memory cards to ps3.

[rainslacker]

I'm really hoping they bring back PS1 emulation through software. The PS4 should be more than capable. It should be able to run PS2 emulation software as well. I can understand PS3 emulation, so while it would be nice to have, I can understand them wanting to keep the price low.

If they ever come out with a premium model, or some sort of extra hardware that enables it(doubtful since there's no expansion port), I would buy it in a heartbeat. I still regularly play games from every generation.

Otherwise, Gaikai is going to be their answer, which is why I believe they didn't include it. In some way they will monetize it. I'm not sure how I feel about that, since I don't really know what their plans are, or how well it will be supported games wise, and if it will be priced reasonably.

[cincychuck]

It would be nice if they had an official PS1 and PS2 emulator on the PS4 store. I'd pay 10-20 dollars for that option. I'd love to play some of my old games since my PS2 died awhile back.

[GSKerns]

Whatever happened to that mythical Halo 4 cloud computing demo they did? They acted like backwards compatibility was only a matter of "when"... not "if".

[BabyTownFrolics]

http://www.joystiq.com/2013...

Though it is possible there are as of yet there no confirmed plans

[GSKerns]

I would not be surprised if there was a bit of smoke and mirrors used in that demo

[buynit]

I think its complete bull shit that the games cant be compatible its like damn near every gen with ms and sony. they always give the middle finger to those that supported them the gen before and jump into the new gen day one..

If their is a next gen console i swear i will not buy the console that is not backwards compatible. I buy too many damn games for either of these clowns to think that i should either keep my old console hooked up or forget about the games.. Its not like new consoles launch with a lot of good games and that is something i will never understand...

[Dark_king]

yea not like ps3 played ps2 games which played ps1 games.Though no reason to complain about BC when people voted with there wallets against it.Heck 360 even played some Xbox games.So yea no BC happens like ever gen.

[buynit]

Im not talking about the half ass after thought way ms did it or the limited edition way sony did it..

I just want to simply insert my 360 game or ps3 game into my next gen consoles and play them like nintendo does it..

Yes i paid for the consoles but ms or sony clearly did not intend to do it at all anyway, you have to realise that a consumers wallet doesnt always win the debate if that was the case im pretty sure xb1 wouldntbe sold with kinect (according n4g).

[Dark_king]

Nin system is just a upgraded version of the last if it didn't have BC it would be upsetting.However PS4 and Xbox1 are completely different and the only way to have BC would be to put there CPU's in there.Add at least another 100 to the cost and risk not selling well because there to expensive.

"if that was the case im pretty sure xb1 wouldntbe sold with kinect (according n4g)."

My thoughts on this are n4g is full of "core" gamers and most gamers like games and how many Kinect games did they get that they enjoyed.1,2 for some,none for most.In fact they focused on Kinect games instead of "Core" games for them.So you can see why N4G has a bit of hate for it.
However people did by Kinect and Kinect games just not the majority of "core" gamers on here.People voted yes to it with there wallets.

[pop-voxuli]

No, the reason, and the ONLY reason is so they can re-sell 360 games as part of an HD collection, or digital download. There's no $$$ to be made by giving us Backwards compatibility.

[MestreRothN4G]

You didn't read the article, did you?

This is one of the reasons, but still an option. His reasons are almost prohibitive.

[MidnytRain]

It sounds like neither console is powerful enough to run the virtual machine he speaks of.

[SilentGuard]

How difficult would it be to get original Xbox games running on the One, since they both are based on x86 architechture? Although that system is now irrelevant, it would still be a nice feature to brag about.

[rainslacker]

360 is actually a RISC based PowerPC chip.

The video card is fairly standard issue, with a few modifications made for ESRAM.

[SilentGuard]

I was refering to the original Xbox of 2001, not the 360.

[rainslacker]

Ah. Yeah that was just an X86. Pentium II class if I remember correctly. I guess the only thing that may interfere with that would be if they removed the 32-bit processes(common in original Xbox days) from the customized 64-bit x86 chip that they are using now.

As with most BC topics, I feel it would be a nice thing to have, but I have never really seen MS make any long term concerted effort to make it available. As much as people like it, it really isn't that important in the long run, and generally only serves the people that they've already made money off of, and not the ones that are willing to spend money in the future.

[CaulkSlap]

The hardware architecture is too different to just run the games and not near powerful enough for emulation. Incorporating the old hardware would increase the system cost massively. People rejected the PS3 at $599 and that's exactly what these new systems would cost. Personally I would love an all in one Playstation or Xbox but it's obviously not worth it for them to design a completely different model. It's perfectly understandable and I don't see the point in complaining about this.

[XiSasukeUchiha]

I will keep my 360 that just an opinion

[RiPPn]

I wish it had backward compatibility, would be one less box I have under my TV. Not a big deal, but it would sure be convenient.

[Trekster_Gamer]

It makes complete sense what he said. I wish I could play my 360 games on the XB1 but I am not whining about it.

Ps4 users that own a ps3 should already be used to this when sony screwed everyone and removed backwards compatibility, except for PS1!!

Talk about money hungry bastards, hey our ps2 still blows away ps3 in sales so let's remove that options... The JERKS!!!

[Mikeyy]

How many times must we go over this? There is a technical reason why both systems don't have backwards compatibility.

lets look at the PS4. You all wanted it to play PS3 games also, Sounds sweet right? But now look at it from a technical viewpoint. What drives the PS3? The CELL processor. You are free to google it if you don't understand what that is. Current CPUs are no where near strong enough to emulate this, or its custom architecture.

So this tells us, emulation is OUT. So whats left? Hardware. SONY would have to physically solder a CELL processor onto the motherboard of the PS4.

What happens when outdated hardware still gets manufactured on the assembly line? It gets MORE EXPENSIVE. 5 years from now, it would cost more to continue to dedicate a factory and continue to manufacture CELL processors then the current Jaguar CPU would cost to manufacture.

This would cause humongous problems for the console midway into is life. as well as guarentee it will always command a price above $300.

This is the same case for Microsoft also. It would be detrimental to both the PS4 and XBOX ONE if they had to rely on 8+ Year old parts to be manufactured at the same capacity as the rest of the parts.

The true cost of BC is a lot more then you people know.

[conzilla760]

Who gives a shit about BC?? We've all been waiting for and discussng everything next gen until we are blue in the face and now all of a sudden all the dorks with no money working at the dickies booth at the indoor swap meet are just looking for something to cry about. If you haven't played the goods from The previous gen why would you decide to now? Ya I'm gonna spend 500 bucks on a new machine and the first thing IM gonna do is play original Xbox games!! Yippeeeee!!

[Rustynail]

Troll?

[Phoenix76]

That's what I was gonna put down. Only someone with more than sense would pay out between £350-£450 on a console and then say "oh I only want it to play mw1"! Not only that, but these consoles will never, let me repeat that, NEVER, be fully BC. Both Sony and ms have spent billions on R&D on the new gen, how else are they going to get that money back?? Simple. By making us 'the consumer' buy the latest games on the latest console.
It's know as business.

[Dan_scruggs]

The ONE and only gaming system that you will ever need. Except if you want to play 360 games. Then you will need TWO systems. Come to think of it the logic behind the name of the XBOX ONE doesn't make sense. Damn.

[JeffGUNZ]

Who is buying an xbox one to play 360 games? Really? I have my Xbox One under the tree, wrapped and waiting thanks to my girlfriend. The last thing on my mind is "Gee, I can't wait to play Halo 3 with this thing!"

[Dan_scruggs]

Anyone who still wants to play GTA5 without having 2 systems plugged in. So about 30 million people have bought that game so you do the math.

[JeffGUNZ]

@Dan_Scruggs

Actually, you'd be surprised. Rockstars forums and newswire are filled with users who are dissatisfied with the game. A lot of complaints and I am one of them. One of the major selling points to their MP was coop heists and they still have yet to be added and won't be till "sometime 2014". They have nerfed payouts and the MP has been a mess throughout with player progression being deleted or lost and cars being deleted from garages. It's a hackers paradise at the moment. They also stopped new missions at level 81, so the replay value drops significantly, relatively quickly.

I do see your point, yes their are a few games that would warrant me to want to game on the 360, but if you have the space and money, keeping the 360 is the simple solution. I am surprised they just don't have the games available for DD for free. For instance, send your game in, or trade it at a participating store and get a DD voucher for a free download of that game. Never will happen though.

[Dan_scruggs]

So on a PC I can replace my motherboard and upgrade my operating system and change my ram and my graphics card with components that come from entirely different companies and all my software and games will instantly be compatible but on a home console that is seemingly impossible. I smell bullshit.

[conzilla760]

The tools used to developed games for the home consoles are different man. Plus this discussion is not about PC...why must you guys always chime in About your computers???? Its like the iOS vs android argument of which is best...one is for guys who are compelled to modify thing where as console gamers just want to throw in a disc and play. Nothing is wrong with either. Doesnt mean that you must talk about one when discussing the other. Also think of the cost of packing in the hardware for both...all these broke ass people are already complaining about 500....you think adding hardware will somehow make the machine any less expensive? It will obviously be more and once again..people are already complaining. Add on 50 bucks and people will spontaneously combust!