Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: Backwards Compatibility, HRL, microsoft, xbox, Xbox 360, xbox one

Don't Expect As Many Original Xbox Games To Be Backwards Compatible

When Xbox fans learned that titles from the original system would be coming their way on the backwards compatibility system, you could collectively hear a bunch of 30-something's heads explode across the country.

However, like all good things that came up during Microsoft's E3 press conference, there's a lot of finer details that weren't discussed or brought to light until after all the praise had been heaped upon them. The truth of the matter, which came straight from Xbox head Phil Spencer, is that you won't be seeing as many games as you think.

You can check out the entire video below as Spencer sits down with Giant Bomb to discuss all things Xbox One X, but here are some of the cliff notes to the backwards compatibility mission that was left out of the presentation.

First, there aren't going to be a ton of titles coming your way simply because of rights issues. A large chunk of the Xbox library is third-party developers who didn't sign exclusive rights (Beyond Good & Evil, Soulcalibur, and Grand Theft Auto would be good examples of this), and Microsoft really didn't get their act together in that respect until the 360 rolled around.

Another issue is the amount of time it takes to make a game of that era work on a modern system. The emulation team are going two generations back, and in some cases, are going after games that have long since passed their expiration date when it comes to graphics and stability. When they finally get ported, they'll run far smoother than you originally remember, but it takes a lot of tech and work to get there. Those two elements combined mean that unlike the 360 library, which has been a steady stream of titles, the original Xbox is going to be a slow and steady drip.

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