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May 19, 2005 Link to this post
More on Xbox 360 backwards compatibility
Yesterday, we pointed out an article that suggested that certain titles in the Xbox collection would be singled out for backwards compatibility - Halo and Halo 2 among them. That article implied that emulation would be involved; code running on the Xbox 360 that handled the calls to the Intel CPU that Xbox games expected to see in the unit. A new article at GamesIndustry.biz, however, says that rather than the box itself emulating Intel hardware, the games will be recompiled to run on the PowerPC chips inside the Xbox 360. Why does this matter to you? In the first case, you'd be able to simply put your existing copies of Halo and Halo 2 into the Xbox 360 - they'd play. In the second case, you'll be able to PLAY the games on the new machine - but not with your old discs; you'd have to buy the new, recompiled versions. Depending on how many Xbox games are made to be compatible with the new machine (and how many you decided you couldn't live without), you could be spending a fortune to replace games you already have. If this turns out to be true, the 'backwards compatibility' claim goes out the window - yes, you'll be able to play older games on your new Xbox 360 - but not the versions you have; you STILL have to buy new copies. Here's hoping GI got it wrong. Thanks, 3Suns. Update: Eep, it looks like 3Suns posted it on the forum as well - so go chime in with your own opinion! (Louis Wu 08:18:51 UTC)
