At E3 2015, Phil Spencer, the chief of Xbox, took to the stage to announce that the Xbox One would be getting a brand new feature: backwards compatibility with original Xbox games through emulation. Xbox then spent the years since then adding more and more to their backwards compatibility lineup, culminating with this month's recent, and final, addition of original Xbox and 360 titles, emulated and enhanced on the Xbox Series X|S. There are currently no plans for further releases, as Xbox has been unable to acquire further rights to older games beyond what they already have.

In an interview with Axios, Phil Spencer said due to some older games being harder to track down and play, as opposed to how it is with more accessible content like music or movies, that he hopes, "as an industry we'd work on legal emulation that allowed modern hardware to run any (within reason) older executable allowing someone to play any game", advocating for other companies to make use of "legal" video game emulation.

"I think in the end, if we said, ‘Hey, anybody should be able to buy any game, or own any game and continue to play,' that seems like a great North Star for us as an industry"

Source

 

[Marc_LFD]

Whoa, Xbox isn't holding back, they're going all-out.

SONY and Nintendo could learn from this.

 

[Flame]

Yes, that's why the backwards compatible library of games on the Xbox consoles is short and access is convoluted, right? Oh... Wait...


To be honest, I'd be alright with paying for legal access to roms. Looking at the N64 and SNES library of games? I'm not about to shell out $300+ for the 5-8 titles I feel like playing. Not to mention the titles I missed, some of which being as much as $150 a pop.

the problem is people will buy what ever Nintendo does. like if they re-release the 1st gen pokemon games on the ehop for switch for £/$10 again. people will buy them again.

why do a GameBoy online when you can make extra money?

 

[Marc_LFD]

I bet his definition of "legal" emulation means emulating on a current generation console and re-buying your library.

No, if you own the disc you can play it. It's SONY that makes you re-buy if you want to play it (PS2 Classics on PS3, for example).

Even when SONY launched PS2 Classics back then I hoped they'd allow us to use the game discs we already had, but greed speaks louder.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Tell that to the pieces of shit at Nintendo.
They're the ones holding progress on this front back with their imbecile rhetoric.

 

[Kioku]

the problem is people will buy what ever Nintendo does. like if they re-release the 1st gen pokemon games on the ehop for switch for £/$10 again. people will buy them again.

why do a GameBoy online when you can make extra money?

Oh, you know they're doing a GameBoy online service.

 

[eyeliner]

Give me Gamepass with a slew of late 90's early 2000's games. I won't care for the emulator used.

I'll gladly replay the games that I really enjoyed but now can't because of no system available or can't find them legally, or play the games that I had to let pass because of money, hardware or lack of time problems.

Heck, I'll even buy XBox Series S.

 

[Flame]

Oh, you know they're doing a GameBoy online service.

will they gotta soon or later. i mean how else they going to sell the switch 2 to people like you and me.

 

[such]

There's no such thing as "legal" art preservation since you just can't do true preservation as a business, period. The aim of preservation isn't and shouldn't be making money. The aim of doing business is to make money. So, you see Phil the American Chief of a Corporation: there's a bit of a contradiction there.

Who am I kidding? Your soul is a spreadsheet, you'll never see it this way.

 

[Kioku]

will they gotta soon or later. i mean how else they going to sell the switch 2 to people like you and me.

For a bargain of $100/year we can get access to 8 hand picked titles from the glorious Gameboy days. 2 of which are obscure titles nobody outside of Japan has heard of. 1 Pokemon game with no link cable emulation. 2 Mario titles. Link's Awakening. With the final 2 being random third party titles people forgot existed a month after they released back in the 90s. Oh, and none of them are GBC enhanced.

Don't forget the new hardware! A half Gameboy shell that feels like it was made in Hong Kong! Honestly, I'd probably buy that...

 

[Kioku]

There's no such thing as "legal" art preservation since you just can't do true preservation as a business, period. The aim of preservation isn't and shouldn't be making money. The aim of doing business is to make money. So, you see Phil the American Chief of a Corporation: there's a bit of a contradiction there.

Who am I kidding? Your soul is a spreadsheet, you'll never see it this way.

Emulation and preservation aren't synonymous. No matter how loud you scream it. There's already numerous "archives" to preserve a pretty damn good chunk of titles.

Obviously it's good PR. He's a major head in a gaming business. Of course the first thought is money. You can't deny that unlike Sony and Nintendo, though? Xbox/Microsoft is pushing to make gaming more accessible for everyone. Retro gaming is a goldmine. It's easy money for these major players to allow easy access to titles of the last millennium.

 

[such]

Emulation is the only practical form of preservation in the long run, and matters of its legality can only obstruct it.

 

[MiiJack]

If they find a way for distributing/renting ROMs legally, then this could be a good thing. But monopolizing emulators is just asking for disaster.

 

[Deleted member 668561]

i dont understand why big companies cant work with scene? if they want good Emulation.



thats my second thought on this subject.

Ps2 Linux, other os, devmode, Nintendo development portal


Why are Bug bounties a thing.. ..

Being indecisive isn't good for business neither is free games

 

[TheZander]

Do the licensing restrictions mean they cannot add backwards compatibility or an xbox emulator to their consoles? Or that they just can't sell them on a virtual shop again without a new agreement

 

[RAHelllord]

I'd love it if he were to put his money where his mouth is and offer an emulator downloadable for Xbox and Windows that will allow perfect (or as perfect as possible) playback of all Xbox games prior to the current gen, all you have to do is supply the rom or the original game disc. While they can't secure more licenses to bring the remaining titles to the backwards compatibility them writing an emulator that can handle those games would not require a license in the first place while also covering the rest of the missing library.

 

[MarkDarkness]

Still a progressive statement given the broader state of things, so it's good in my view.

 

[subcon959]

So Phil is basically the opposite of Jim Ryan who doesn't even understand why anyone would want to play old games.

 

[Kwyjor]

The current MS ideology when it to game preservation is truly a "Role Model" for others to aspire/follow.. Let's hope it stays this way in the future.

Isn't it kind of ironic that he's the one to say these things, when the original XBox is one of the few consoles that was never properly emulated on another platform? I'm not sure XBox 360 emulation is faring very well either.

On that note, are Jet Set Radio Future and Panzer Dragoon Orta finally available again and playable on the XBox Series X|S ?

 

[ZeroFX]

oH mY gOd PhIlL sPeNceR bEsT cEo!11!!!

 

[XDel]

So in short they are anti-public domain. They shall own everything and we shall be their devoted consumers.