Microsoft rep Chris Satchell told an audience of bloggers that the company will place less focus on making original Xbox games backwards compatible with Xbox 360 as 2007 progresses. Back in February Sony said it would drop a chip from the manufacturing process of PS3 that meant the machine wouldn't be 100 percent backwards compatible with PS2 games. Instead it would have limited functionality that would be enhanced via firmware updates.
Sony's Phil Harrison told European gamers at the start of March that they can expect over 1000 PS2 titles to be backwards compatible from the March 23 launch of PS3. Regarding the whole backwards compatibility issue, Harrison said, "I think the reasons why people buy PS3s are the new games that it offers, and the HD content experiences provided by games and movies, the opportunity to access the PlayStation Network, and titles like MotorStorm and Resistance: Fall of Man - leading-edge examples of what next-generation games are all about."
Microsoft now appears to be taking a similar view, after coming under fire in the early days of 360 for not making every Xbox title playable on the shiny new white machine. Microsoft rep Chris Satchell told Kotaku, "At some point we're going to focus less on it. When you get to the end of this year there will be a reduced focus on backwards compatibility. There are so many 360 games out there. I don't know if it's important anymore."Thank the lord Ninja Gaiden: Black works on our 360s!
March 12, 2007
