Microsoft Ditching Backwards Compatibility

Rumors were flying that the next-generation Xbox wouldn't even have support for original Xbox games because of the hardware differences. Despite claims to the contrary, future support for the feature appears to be in jeopardy.

Lets rewind to last May before Microsoft announced what was happening with Xbox 360. Rumors were flying that the next-generation Xbox wouldnt even have support for original Xbox games because of the hardware differences; unlike Sony and Nintendo, Microsoft hadnt really planned for building hardware upon each other for the future.

Even still, Microsoft announced at their E3 press conference that Xbox 360 would include support for "top selling Xbox games" through emulation. A confusing statement the company clarified when the E3 smoke had cleared, resulting in statements sent to a number of websites confirming a goal of including support for every Xbox game.

Dont believe us? Jump in 1UPs handy time machine for a second.

"Backward-compatibility is not the reason people buy a new system," said David Hufford, Microsoft Xbox group product manager. "The perception is that it is significant. Weve put all our energy into new titles, but since our consumers have asked for it...weve made it a goal to make all titles backward-compatible." — C|Net News — May 16, 2005

"At launch, Xbox 360 will be backward compatible with the top Xbox games," Xbox PR manager Michael Wolf told GamesIndustry.biz today. "Our goal is to have every Xbox game work on Xbox 360. You will NOT need to purchase a new version — your original games will work on Xbox 360." — GamesIndustry.biz — May 19, 2005

Microsoft started back pedaling from these statements as the machines fall launch neared, however, as they started repeating their mantra of "top selling Xbox games" ad nausea until they announced the first wave of backwards compatible games. Since then, however, updates have been slow and without much of the fan input that occurred during the companys initial splurge into the feature.

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