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

 

[HellGhast]

I hope Mark Cerny and Jim Ryan are reading this.

Shame on $ony, I invested heavily on Ps3 games, 200 Blu-Ray game disc's, and I cannot play any of them coz all my cr@p Ps3's are dead, and Ps4 and Ps5 do not have back-wards compatibility.

Am in no particular hurry to buy a Ps5 coz of this, but may just buy after seeing the fl0w's and fail0verlow's xploits.

 

[Kioku]

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

Wish I could pull something like that out of thin air. Must be nice to reach that far.

 

[InsaneNutter]

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

In all fairness you can take an OG Xbox game you purchased in 2001, place the disc in a console manufactured in 2021 and play it upscaled to 4k without re-buying that game.

 

[Kopimist]

By the sounds of it, microsoft wants to make "legal" emulation by allowing games to play right off the original disc without the need to be downloaded off the net like the current state is. I think this is a step in the right direction. This would bypass licensing issues and essentially let you play ANY of your old games you have from previous generations without pirating from the net or even dumping your own discs. This is a pretty cool idea imo.

That being said I put legal in quotes because we all know emulation within itself is legal. Its up to the end user to pirate or dump their own games.

 

[CoolMe]

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 ?

Didn't know Panzer was delisted, though it should still be playable with the disc? As for JSRF, i assume they (Sega) didn't want to deal with music licensing, and cutting a large chunk of the OST (or adding new songs), the game would not be the same without it, and should impact the experience greatly. But we'll wait and see if this pans out.

 

[chrisrlink]

MS is really getting it (with emulation) as Sega got it with fan games, and bethesda with mods now if only more studio's realize this the game industry would be in a better position

 

[Codemastershock]

Didn't know Panzer was delisted, though it should still be playable with the disc? As for JSRF, i assume they (Sega) didn't want to deal with music licensing, and cutting a large chunk of the OST (or adding new songs), the game would not be the same without it, and should impact the experience greatly. But we'll wait and see if this pans out.

Panzer Dragoon Orta wasnt delisted, it is available for quite a while, but the current RC model is for certain games only, you cant for example, put JSRF on the Series and One consoles, it doesnt work.

 

[the_randomizer]

Wake me up when official emulators stop being inaccurate pieces of shit. Thanks.

 

[Something whatever]

give him a gold medal

 

[ZER-O]

He deserves a medal, shame it won't happen from Nintendoom

we should all take a moment and appreciate that Xbox is :
- the only console that allows you to play every Sonic Game in existence Legally without modifying the console!
- you are not forced to Re Buy your old games, you can insert game Discs from Xbox 1 and Xbox 360 and have a free Digital version of your games
- you have access to your Xbox 360 Live Arcade Games you already own
- You have access to play Original Xbox and Xbox 360 Games you already own
- you can install Retroarch and play Emulators like Game cube, Wii, Sega Saturn, DreamCast, PSX and many more without modding the console with Full Speed
- Purchased Xbox Games is also free to play on the PC Version
- True Backward Compatibility for all their Older Generation consoles
- Extra Resolution Bump for Old Gen Games (4k to old games)
- 60 FPS increase For OldGen Games

what did Nintendo do?
- made you build a virtual Console Library Twice and then remove access from it
- added Virtual Console in the form of Emulator+Roms and is forcing you to pay an Yearly 50$ Subscription to access them
- killed EmuParadise
- added a Black Screen filter to make all emualted games on Wii U look like shit

- Official Emulators using the worst version of the Games available
- No Backward compatibility with all older Generation Consoles


what Did Sony Do?
- allowed you to emulate PSX and PS2 games then removed access from it
- made you build a PS3 PSN game Library and then removed access from it on PS4/PS5
- no Backward compatibility for PS1/PS2/PS3/PS3 PSN Games
- you have to Purchase Sony Exclusive Games on PC again (XBOX does it for Free)
-No Backward compatibility with all older Generation Consoles (Only PS4 Games)

 

[CathyRina]

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

i think licensing is part of the issue. Like take need for speed Most Wanted for example. You cant put it on Xbox Back Compat because its licenses ran out and EA would need to renew them which may cost a lot of money and, at least in the Xbox sphere people playing older games is very niche so it just wouldn't be profitable, hence who EA isn't doing it (which is tragic because the 360 version of NFS MW is the best unmodded version available).

"But Cathy, if you can play a game on xbox Back compat by just inserting the disc why aren't they doing it like that?" because despite using the original discs as DRM you're still downloading a new modified version of the game which need to go through the above mentioned hoops. I'm certain the XB and 360 Emulator on the One and Series consoles could play the entire library if not for that.

 

[Kopimist]

Wake me up when official emulators stop being inaccurate pieces of shit. Thanks.

#truth

 

[Kioku]

Wake me up when official emulators stop being inaccurate pieces of shit. Thanks.

I mean, having some sort of standards would alleviate this. Or better yet, allow us to use the emulators currently available and offer a service or product to allow us to use our own games or to purchase roms to use on said emulators.

 

[Deleted member 568587]

Look I'm all about Emulation and admittedly even illegal roms, but it's really not that different than watching older movies that aren't on blu-ray or even dvd for example. There's nothing stopping you from tracking down a NES, Super NES, Sega Genesis, original Xbox and buying the games for it, at least if you're in a country that uses Ebay. Yes they'll be used but let's say you wanted to watch a VHS Tape of a rare movie you'd have to track down a VCR and the tape. It's not really that different.

There's no way companies are going to make it where you can access any game because they can't due to licensing issues. Shouldn't he realize this considering they're ending Xbox backwards compatibility due to, you guessed it, licensing issues.

 

[Dud]

Whether this becomes a definitive reality or not, I'm glad someone from the industry is presenting the topic and theorizing a solution.

Piracy/theft will always exist for the sake of preserving art (and other motives, of course). But I would love a way to keep my physical media preserved legally without jumping through hoops.

 

[Skire]

I wish Sony would be more supportive of their legacy platforms and content

 

[Kioku]

I wish Sony would be more supportive of their legacy platforms and content

I wish Sony would just be more supportive.

 

[XDel]

Remember when game companies began to bring in lobbyists to argue the point that they deserved a cut from every used game sold from within Game Stops and other gaming stores of the like?

And remember back in 1994 when Public Enemy ended their album with this prophecy?

Kids these days are just suckers for corporate slavery. Again, you will own nothing and rent everything.. 2030 here we come!!!

 

[Skire]

I wish Sony would just be more supportive.

Touché

 

[grey72]

There's nothing stopping you from tracking down a NES

Dying hardware and rare games very much are