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http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000597043723/
Q: Regarding backwards compatibility, it seems like that's going to be on a
kind of a selective basis from what we gather-is that correct?
A: We are working very hard to get compatibility. Of course the
prioritization in our technical work is in the leading selling games from
the first generation, just like the PS2 didn't run all PS1 games, it is
unlikely we'll ever be able to say the 360 will run all Xbox 1 games. I
think there are some games if we get them to run that means many, many other
games will run, and I think rather than give some statement that is either
too conservative (because the engineers can do better), or a bold statement
we can't live up to, we thought we'd make our strategy clear that as we get
further down the road and as our engineers do more work, the execution will
speak for itself.
Q: And there's also the possibility of patching over Live to allow for more
games down the road-is that something that's being looked at?
A: Robbie Bach, Chief Xbox Officer: Sure, there's a number of different ways
you can distribute the capability. The thing you have to recognize is we got
to a point at E3 that we said look, there's so much speculation about this
even though the work is ongoing, we should just deal with it and get people
focused on the right thing rather than on the wrong thing. We wanted people
knowing we're doing the work, but you don't want to say we're going to do
every single game, because we don't know that to be a fact today.
A: Ballmer: We've actually dealt with this issue more than any other company
in the world (with every Windows release). The truth of the matter is we run
a high percentage of apps, and every Windows release we hear about the apps
that don't run. But because there are fewer console releases than there are
Windows releases, it's even more of a front and center question. But I think
we have a pretty good sense of how to do this. Live gives us another asset
to go after this, of course-we have a strong Live base, but it's still only
a few million people at this stage, it's not all of our installed base, so
we can't count on it as the only mechanism to try to get the strongest
backward compatibility possible.
Q: Will backwards compatibility be determined on sales if you proceed with
the plan as you have? Will it just be the best-selling platinum hits?
A: I'd say it a little differently. I'd say what we will do is pick a set of
titles and do all the technical work to get those to work. The truth is when
you do some of those titles, you do get dozens to hundreds of other titles
because you take any game that pushes the system and exercises it. If you
can make backward compatibility happen for it, you'd handle any game that
has a subset of what it does. So it's wrong to say it's about individual
games, it's right to say we're going to prioritize the general purpose
technologies based upon that which is in that league of games.
A: Bach: The other thing you can say is you can assume Halo and Halo 2 are
fairly close to the top of the list. [laughter] for both the reasons Steve
states. Because they're top selling games and they're some of the most
technically complicated games.
Ballmer: ...so if you get those two, you'll get a lot of other stuff.
Q: Regarding backwards compatibility, it seems like that's going to be on a
kind of a selective basis from what we gather-is that correct?
A: We are working very hard to get compatibility. Of course the
prioritization in our technical work is in the leading selling games from
the first generation, just like the PS2 didn't run all PS1 games, it is
unlikely we'll ever be able to say the 360 will run all Xbox 1 games. I
think there are some games if we get them to run that means many, many other
games will run, and I think rather than give some statement that is either
too conservative (because the engineers can do better), or a bold statement
we can't live up to, we thought we'd make our strategy clear that as we get
further down the road and as our engineers do more work, the execution will
speak for itself.
Q: And there's also the possibility of patching over Live to allow for more
games down the road-is that something that's being looked at?
A: Robbie Bach, Chief Xbox Officer: Sure, there's a number of different ways
you can distribute the capability. The thing you have to recognize is we got
to a point at E3 that we said look, there's so much speculation about this
even though the work is ongoing, we should just deal with it and get people
focused on the right thing rather than on the wrong thing. We wanted people
knowing we're doing the work, but you don't want to say we're going to do
every single game, because we don't know that to be a fact today.
A: Ballmer: We've actually dealt with this issue more than any other company
in the world (with every Windows release). The truth of the matter is we run
a high percentage of apps, and every Windows release we hear about the apps
that don't run. But because there are fewer console releases than there are
Windows releases, it's even more of a front and center question. But I think
we have a pretty good sense of how to do this. Live gives us another asset
to go after this, of course-we have a strong Live base, but it's still only
a few million people at this stage, it's not all of our installed base, so
we can't count on it as the only mechanism to try to get the strongest
backward compatibility possible.
Q: Will backwards compatibility be determined on sales if you proceed with
the plan as you have? Will it just be the best-selling platinum hits?
A: I'd say it a little differently. I'd say what we will do is pick a set of
titles and do all the technical work to get those to work. The truth is when
you do some of those titles, you do get dozens to hundreds of other titles
because you take any game that pushes the system and exercises it. If you
can make backward compatibility happen for it, you'd handle any game that
has a subset of what it does. So it's wrong to say it's about individual
games, it's right to say we're going to prioritize the general purpose
technologies based upon that which is in that league of games.
A: Bach: The other thing you can say is you can assume Halo and Halo 2 are
fairly close to the top of the list. [laughter] for both the reasons Steve
states. Because they're top selling games and they're some of the most
technically complicated games.
Ballmer: ...so if you get those two, you'll get a lot of other stuff.
