Xbox Next: No backwards compatibility?

Posted on 23 Jun 2004 at 11:15

According to various reports on the Internet, senior sources at Microsoft are alleged to have confirmed that Xbox 2, Xbox Next or whatever moniker they finally settle on, won't be backwards compatible with the current generation of Xbox games.

In a recent interview, Xbox overlord J Allard confirmed that although MS were looking at the issue of backwards compatibility, their early research had indicated that, to gamers, 'It's not that important.'

Allard was even more bullish about Xbox Next's launch line-up: 'We're going to focus on a killer launch line-up, and I think we'll have an ever better line-up for the next-gen than we did this time. If you have that, then what do you want to play?' Clearly Allard believes that a new generation of titles will be the key to Xbox Next's success.

Looking at it in a wider context, there seems little incentive for Microsoft to make Xbox Next backwards compatible. Not only would it add to hardware costs, but the Xbox mantra has always been, 'It's all about the games' and MS will surely attempt to launch on the prospects of a whole new wave of titles which can take advantage of Xbox Next's superior capabilities.

Indeed, Halo 2 aside, is there any current generation Xbox game we'd even want to see on Xbox Next? When you add in the fact that ATI rather than nVidia will also be making the console's graphics chipset, adding to the complexity, backwards compatibility seems dead in the water.

Reacting to the rumours, a Microsoft spokesperson played it with the usual deadly straight bat saying, 'Recent stories in the press about future Xbox products are nothing more than fiction. Microsoft hasn't made any announcements regarding the next generation, so it's far too early to speculate about specifics, including backward compatibility.'

Author: John Houlihan