XBOX One Owners Thread

[yourbeliefs]

The first batch of BC games have been announced. Not exactly bursting with established hits but apparently they're working hard to add more.

http://news.xbox.com/2015/11/09/introducing-your-first-104-xbox-one-backward-compatibility-games/

 

[king3pj]

The first batch of BC games have been announced. Not exactly bursting with established hits but apparently they're working hard to add more.

http://news.xbox.com/2015/11/09/introducing-your-first-104-xbox-one-backward-compatibility-games/

I actually think this is a pretty sad list, especially since they claimed that all they needed was permission from the publisher and they didn't need to build out emulation support for each individual game like they did on the 360 for original Xbox games. Supposedly the entire 360 system is emulated on the Xbox One and games are just supposed to work once they have permission. If that is truly the case, this list is a little puzzling to me.

First of all they don't even have all the games they published themselves available on this list. Halo Reach and Halo Wars aren't available now but supposedly are coming. If they only need permission from themselves what is the delay there?

Other Microsoft published games like Alan Wake and the Crackdown series aren't even on the coming soon list. Crackdown in particular seems weird since Crackdown 3 isn't too far off. I never played the original and was looking forward to playing it before Crackdown 3 arrives.

There are other oddities too. Even publishers that allowed some games left other prominent games in their catalog off the list. Borderlands 1 is available but Borderlands 2 and the Pre-Sequel aren't? Mass Effect 1 is available but Mass Effect 2 and 3 aren't? Fallout 3 is available but Fallout New Vegas and Skyrim aren't.

Mass Effect is especially weird since EA has already said they aren't interested in re-releases but they would make their games available for backwards compatibility. Other prominent EA games like the Dead Space series and Dragon Age series are also missing.

Looks like I was right to pass on the the two Deals With Gold discounts I recently skipped because I wasn't sure if they would make the backwards compatibility list. Catherine and Red Dead Redemption are both absent from the list. I don't see any Rockstar games period so they may have trouble getting one of the games that has been near the top of the requests page since the beginning.

All in all, I'm glad backwards compatibility is a thing but after quickly scanning the list there isn't much I'm excited to play right away. I'll probably play some Gears 2 Horde Mode but that's about it for now. Hopefully they can get publishers like EA, 2K, Ubisoft, Bethesda, and others to just give blanket permission for their entire catalog and expand the list quickly. Also they really need to have 100% support for Microsoft published games. That's just silly.

 

[WiCkeDuDe]

I just am hoping they put the dead rising series games on the list and the batman Arkham games, along with gta Iv and I can sell off my 360 console

 

[meStevo]

Looks like a good start to me, my library will be growing by a dozen or so and with promises of regular updates + all the games with gold additions.

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[yourbeliefs]

I actually think this is a pretty sad list, especially since they claimed that all they needed was permission from the publisher and they didn't need to build out emulation support for each individual game like they did on the 360 for original Xbox games. Supposedly the entire 360 system is emulated on the Xbox One and games are just supposed to work once they have permission. If that is truly the case, this list is a little puzzling to me.

First of all they don't even have all the games they published themselves available on this list. Halo Reach and Halo Wars aren't available now but supposedly are coming. If they only need permission from themselves what is the delay there?

Other Microsoft published games like Alan Wake and the Crackdown series aren't even on the coming soon list. Crackdown in particular seems weird since Crackdown 3 isn't too far off. I never played the original and was looking forward to playing it before Crackdown 3 arrives.

There are other oddities too. Even publishers that allowed some games left other prominent games in their catalog off the list. Borderlands 1 is available but Borderlands 2 and the Pre-Sequel aren't? Mass Effect 1 is available but Mass Effect 2 and 3 aren't? Fallout 3 is available but Fallout New Vegas and Skyrim aren't.

Mass Effect is especially weird since EA has already said they aren't interested in re-releases but they would make their games available for backwards compatibility. Other prominent EA games like the Dead Space series and Dragon Age series are also missing.

Looks like I was right to pass on the the two Deals With Gold discounts I recently skipped because I wasn't sure if they would make the backwards compatibility list. Catherine and Red Dead Redemption are both absent from the list. I don't see any Rockstar games period so they may have trouble getting one of the games that has been near the top of the requests page since the beginning.

All in all, I'm glad backwards compatibility is a thing but after quickly scanning the list there isn't much I'm excited to play right away. I'll probably play some Gears 2 Horde Mode but that's about it for now. Hopefully they can get publishers like EA, 2K, Ubisoft, Bethesda, and others to just give blanket permission for their entire catalog and expand the list quickly. Also they really need to have 100% support for Microsoft published games. That's just silly.

I really don't think it's as simple as "As long as we have permission we can deliver these games." First off, software emulation of hardware is difficult, even if your company were the ones that developed it in the first place. I think part of the problem is that not every game is going to "simply work" with this system. There's a good possibility that some of the first party games like Alan Wake and Crackdown aren't available because they don't run well right now. There's no point in making a game available if you have horrible frame rate issues or certain things won't render properly. Also, you don't want to blow your wad early so to speak. 100 games out of the gate is still pretty impressive, even if they're not the most well known games. You don't want to try to get out EVERYTHING ASAP because if there are problems with the system then it's just more games you need to diagnose and help fix. Microsoft said that there would be regular updates on games that were compatible, so it's not like this is it forever.

Having said all that, yeah the list sort of sucks, but I have to imagine that there's legitimate reasons that we're not privy to as to why the list is the way it is. For one, it looks like Arcade games are much more BC friendly, which may be because they're configured differently than the "standard" 360 ones are. Also, probably why they don't have entire series' available is because some publishers want to wait and see how this launch goes before they decide to just throw entire franchises out there (and also there's a good chance that some have "Remastered" versions in the works and don't want these cannibalizing their sales.)

Honestly, even if they had come out of the gate with ALL my 360 games available I'd still probably hold on to my 360, mainly because of the staggering amount of DLC I have for Rock Band, Dance Central, and Guitar Hero games. I am happy that Black Ops 1 is coming to the BC, as it's one less game I need to use my 360 for. Still, I think for now we all have to agree that this list of BC games doesn't make this the incredible "game changer" that Microsoft needs at this point to pick up on sales against the PS4, which just got even harder with the recent price drop.

 

[meStevo]

Arcade games make a lot of sense because of the attach rate. Imagine this list coming out and nobody owning any of them digitally.

I expect some titles like Crackdown (and hopefully RDR) are being held for marketing reasons and others like NCAA14 won't see the light of day because of licensing issues.

I wonder what the financials behind this look like, typically there are console licensing fees, etc or if MS is waiving all of that stuff.

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[king3pj]

I think it probably has to do with games not running well too but when Microsoft announced this feature one of the main benefits they touted was that they wouldn't have to do any extra work to make a game backwards compatible.

They said this would be better than the 360's backwards compatibility because all they needed was the publisher's permission to support a game.

They claimed we wouldn't have the problem of a slow rollout because the 360 hardware itself was being emulated instead of having to build in support for each game like they did to get original Xbox games running on the 360. They actually said that all 360 games would be compatible except for Kinect games and games like Rock Band that use special controllers as long as they got publisher permission. They also claimed they were shooting for 100% first party support.

If they really only needed publisher permission they shouldn't have had any trouble getting games they published themselves on the list.

I listened to an episode of IGN's Podcast Unlocked where Phil Spencer spencer went very in depth with all of this stuff and the initial rollout suggests that it might not work the way he claimed it would. If it did work the way he claimed there would be no reason to worry about releasing games on a slow schedule because they are all supposed to just work.

 

[Derwin0]

I think it probably has to do with games not running well too but when Microsoft announced this feature one of the main benefits they touted was that they wouldn't have to do any extra work to make a game backwards compatible.

They said this would be better than the 360's backwards compatibility because all they needed was the publisher's permission to support a game.

Me thinks they promised the moon in order to stop (or at least slow down) the PS4 momentum, and are now facing the harsh reality that it's not going to be as simple as they promised.

 

[meStevo]

Which promise did they not fulfill? They are delivering on 100 games, and 2 free games a month that are BC.

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[king3pj]

Which promise did they not fulfill? They are delivering on 100 games, and 2 free games a month that are BC.

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I named a few of them in my long post just two spots up above yours.

1. Phil Spencer said this would not be like the 360's backwards compatibility feature for original Xbox games. He said that there wouldn't be a slow rollout of supported games because they had full hardware emulation instead of having to design emulator support for each individual game.

In reality it looks like this is going to be exactly like the 360's backwards compatibility support where a few games get added to the list every month. Backwards compatibility support is the exception and not the rule.

2. Phil Spencer claimed that they are shooting for 100% first party support including games like Halo 1-4 that had a re-released version on Xbox One. Instead there might be more first party games that aren't supported than games that are. Yes, Halo Reach and Halo Wars are coming but the only current Halo game on the list is Spartan Assault.



I realize that this is just the beginning and games will continue to be added over time. Maybe they will get 100% of their first party games supported eventually. For now it looks like they over-promised and under-delivered to me though.

If backwards compatibility really works on all 360 games like they said it does (excluding kinect and special controller games) without having to build in support for each game there is no reason not to support it with the games Microsoft owns. Again, they claimed this just works and developers wouldn't have to put in any extra work to get their games on the backwards compatibility list. All they supposedly needed to do was give Microsoft permission.

I'll put it this way.... If Microsoft didn't even support backwards compatibility on so many of their own games how can they expect third party publishers like EA, Ubisoft, Activision, 2K, Warner Brothers, etc to support it?

 

[meStevo]

That seems like an overreaction to some assumptions. They aren't going to make several hundred games backward compatible and then just dump them all out at once.

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[king3pj]

That seems like an overreaction to some assumptions. They aren't going to make several hundred games backward compatible and then just dump them all out at once.

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Why not?

Edit: I highly suggest listening to this interview with Phil Spencer that I keep referencing. Here it is from IGN. Most of the backwards compatibility stuff is in the first 6 or 7 minutes.
http://ec.libsyn.com/p/0/c/4/0c4c21...1ce3dae902ea1d06cc8037d8c05b6e67&c_id=9275942

 

[meStevo]

Why not?

Why not release all games with gold deals at the same time? Why not just release all games for the year in January? BC is a feature that will be rolling out for some time, some in conjunction with marketing and other events (games with gold, game releases, EA Access vault).

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[king3pj]

Why not release all games with gold deals at the same time? Why not just release all games for the year in January? BC is a feature that will be rolling out for some time, some in conjunction with marketing and other events (games with gold, game releases, EA Access vault).

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I don't get your comparison. Backwards compatibility is not the same as a game launch. These games had their launch almost 10 years ago in some cases. Sure they might sell some new 360 copies when they add backwards compatibility support but most people will just use it to play games they already own. It seems weird to tie a game I already own to a marketing event just because it's a backwards compatibility game.

I don't see how that's any different than Microsoft telling me I can't play the Xbox One copy of Master Chief Collection I own until 2 months before Halo 5 comes out for marketing purposes. They wouldn't do that because it's ridiculous.

If they want to include a free copy of Crackdown 1 to play in backwards compatibility when you buy a copy of Crackdown 3 that's great. That would be nice marketing. How does letting people who already own Crackdown 1 play it now hurt anything though?

All I'm saying is that they claim the Xbox One has full compatibility for Xbox 360 games and all they need is publisher permission. Some early PS3s had backwards compatibility support for PS2 and PS1 games but they didn't make people wait months to years while they gradually unlocked games 1 by 1.

Again, I'm happy backwards compatibility is finally here. My gripe is just that they said this would be different than last generation's gradual rollout and that doesn't appear to be true.

 

[Ronnie-]

Downloaded the update yesterday, and so far so good. It appears that many tasks are simplified, and while I had no real speed issue before, this update seems faster.

 

[Ramy]

That's good. Is it easier to find simple tasks like keying in a code for a game?

 

[king3pj]

That's good. Is it easier to find simple tasks like keying in a code for a game?

If you have a Kinect it's always been easy. Just say Xbox redeem a code. I'm not sure what the process is without one but that was part of the reason people didn't like the old UI. Things that were simple if you had a Kinect were sometimes hard to find without one.

 

[Ramy]

My Kinect doesn't work quite right for some reason.

 

[yourbeliefs]

If you're referring to Kinect gestures not working, it's because they were removed.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/11/11/9712196/xbox-one-kinect-dead-gestures-removed-dashboard

 

[king3pj]

I had those disabled anyways because the Kinect would pick up my hands all the time and go into gesture mode when I wasn't trying to make a gesture. It also wasn't nearly as easy to use as the voice commands so I didn't really see the point.