For those backing Team Green, one of the most diehard defensive points to bring up is Xbox’s dedication to backwards compatibility and the availability of old games on modern platforms. Recently, news broke revealing that a new team was established at Xbox by Sarah Bond – who was made president of the brand last year – to focus on that topic.
An article published exclusively by Windows Central stated that the team is dedicated to preserving games and ensuring forward compatibility exists across the Xbox ecosystem, whatever it may evolve to look like.
We Need To Go Back!
Windows Central exclusively revealed content detailed in a series of internal emails, which focused mainly on ‘briefings’ issued by Sarah Bond. One key tidbit to take away from the discussion was the creation of a fresh team dedicated to ‘future-proof digital game libraries across future hardware paradigms.’
In a quote taken from Jez Corden’s write-up on Windows Central:
We have formed a new team dedicated to game preservation, important to all of us at Xbox and the industry itself. We are building on our strong history of delivering backwards compatibility to our players, and we remain committed to bringing forward the amazing library of Xbox games for future generations of players to enjoy.
There are bold plans for Xbox to reach lofty heights in the coming years, with the tech titan working on the ‘biggest technological leap ever in a generation’, which was said by Sarah Bond during a recent podcast-based update. However, looking to the future also includes bringing up the past – which is a huge deal for long-time gamers who want all their games (including retro ones) in the same place.
Recently, a debate sprung up around the preservation of games, with some avid gamers taking legal matters into their own hands and trying to sue publishers and developers for shutting down live service games. We’ve seen some projects pulled offline and others cancelled before they make it to the market in recent months, but that’s part of the ongoing impact of the industry’s woes that have been circulating for more than a year and a half.
Do you make use of Xbox’s powerful backwards compatibility features?
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How about bringing Wolfenstein 2009 back to Steam?
Make all original Xbox and 360 games BC then!
This!!
That’s great now actually make games learn from the past what people liked
Exactly they need to make games even some remakes would be great and they have the money a IP. This isn’t hard. Activision owns True Crime remake those games and make a sequel to NYC, Blur would be a great online racer with modern graphics, Banjo remake, Conker remake again with no censorship, THUG remake, THPS 3+4 remake, Tenchu remake, new Conker, Kameo 2, Viva Piñata online, Jade Empire remake, Prototype remake, Prototype 3 or redo of 2 where Alex lives, Phantom Dust, Crackdown online, Sundown, Cry On, Crash 4 properly, Spyro done properly, Mech Assault, Crimson Skies, there’s so much. Brute Force is another, Voodoo Vince sequel, Blinx, like there is a ton of stuff they do nothing with Kakuto Chojin, Kung Fu Chaos, Tao Feng, Killer Instinct.
If they want to have an announcement to turn things around they need to announce more publisher acquisitions like EA and Take2 and announce exclusive AAA games!
I use my ps5 for modern games and my xb1x for og xbox and 360 games. That’s about all I do with my xb1 and the only reason I got one. I play a few modern games on xbox just because I got them on sale digitally or because it’s on gamepass but 90% of the games I play from ps4/5 & xb1/series x era I play on ps5. I heard a little while ago they were going to do away with backwards compatibility and that they quit bringing older games so I never bought a series s or x. If they start adding more though I’ll probably get one
“Forward compatibility” maybe make some good games that shouldn’t be hard when you have this amount of money to burn! These people are so out of touch they need to go if Microsoft wants to succeed just promote the ABK people and fire the Xbox executives.
I’d love to see the original test drive unlimited game get brought to Backwards compatability, I’d happily pay for it again but as it seems the only way I can play this is by downloading an emulator or risking my pc by downloading Abandonware. I’m glad Xbox is building a dedicated team to keeping these old games going.