Print - Microsoft Announces Xbox 360 Games, Compatibility with Previous Xbox

At a Monday press conference on the eve of the E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) trade show, Microsoft revealed more information about games that will ship this year for its Xbox 360 video game console and home entertainment system, which the company expects to ship simultaneously in North America, Europe, and Japan in November. Perhaps more crucially, the company also began discussing its plans for backwards compatibility with previous Xbox titles, an issue that can be described, at best, as a mixed bag.

Microsoft announced that over 160 Xbox 360 games are in active development from a variety of leading developers, including Electronic Arts (EA), Activision, and Ubisoft. Most notably, Square Enix, a Japan-based software development house that ignored the first generation Xbox, has signed on board for Xbox 360 and will release "FINAL FANTASY XI" for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, and work on future Xbox 360 titles with Microsoft.

Industry giant EA reported that it will support Xbox 360 with the widest title release it has ever shipped for a new console. The company has promised games such as "Madden NFL 06," "Need for Speed Most Wanted," "FIFA 06," "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06," "The Godfather The Game" and "NBA Live 06" for the Xbox 360 launch in November.

As for backwards compatibility, Microsoft is hedging its bets. Currently, the company is only promising that Xbox 360 will be compatible "top-selling" Xbox games, and not the entire catalog of first generation games. The problem, apparently, is that Xbox 360 runs on a completely different hardware platform than the original Xbox, and Microsoft will have to custom-create software fixes, or shims, that will let Xbox titles run normally on the new system.

On a related note, Microsoft also announced a number of software titles for the current generation Xbox, including "Half-Life 2" (Valve), "Far Cry Instincts" (Ubisoft), "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" (Buena Vista), and "Star Wars Battlefront II" (LucasArts), among others. The company reported that 200 new Xbox games will ship in 2005, with hundreds more in 2006 and beyond. However, these games will come from third parties, and not Microsoft's in-house game developers: Microsoft will stop supporting the original Xbox with new titles after this year in order to focus on Xbox 360.

Haha. Backwards compatibility will only work with a few games. Exactly as I predicted.

Who cares if it has backwards compatibility? Anyone who wants to play an Xbox 1 game will already have an Xbox 1 to play it on.

Who cares if it has backwards compatibility? Anyone who wants to play an Xbox 1 game will already have an Xbox 1 to play it on.- Then why add BC to dreamcast 360 in the first place, dumba$$?!

The company reported that 200 new Xbox games will ship in 2005, with hundreds more in 2006 --- NEWSFLASH, the XBOX360 coming at the end of this year means not many developers are going to pumping out XBOX1 titles in 2006..

It shouldn't take a high school diploma to figure out that they mean the Xbox 360 will have "hundreds more" games in 2006, in addition to the fact that Microsoft will continue to sell the original Xbox even after Xbox 360 is released. As for the guy who put the http://www.yanni.com/ thing, what the hell did that have to do with anything? I went to it thinking it was some other news site or a blog, instead I saw some dancing fairy -- disgusting.

Having backwards compatibility for top selling Xbox games on the Xbox360 and not all of them is a smart thing to do, if you have an Xbox already you can play them all regardless if the Xbox360 can't. If you don't have an Xbox and get a Xbox360 this time, you'll only want to get the older BEST SELLING games anyways, as you'll be buying newer Xbox360 games for the most part anyways. All of this works out in the end perfectly

"If you don't have an Xbox and get a Xbox360 this time, you'll only want to get the older BEST SELLING games anyways, as you'll be buying newer Xbox360 games for the most part anyways." Your argument makes very little sense overall. (#1) Many people already have a ton of components hooked up to their television sets. I, for example, have a dvd player, vcr, xbox, gamecube, ps2, etc. Not only am I running out of physical room, there are not enough plugs available. I don't want to have a million components hooked up to my current setup. In response to "top selling games", many of the "top selling games" are not my forte. Perhpas my tastes might be a bit more obscure..say I want to play Panzer Dragoon or Fatal Frame, these are great games, but not top selling, why should these be excluded. Imagine we talked in terms of cds, many of the top selling cds are complete ****, some of us don't just buy into massively popular **** and have unique and independent tastes. Microsoft is really ******* this one up badly, especially when rumors are floating around about how they're to stop current hardware production for the xbox. http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2005/05/12/afx2024549.html That is all I have to say at this time.

Boooooring. Bill's in it for the money just like every other video game producer out there. He's gonna do what's best for Bill not what's best for you. So my advice is adapt and overcome or just dont buy a 360 till the price goes down in 2-3 years.

Most people seem to miss the point. Backwards compatibility means I would have TWO Xboxes in the house, running TWO copies of Halo 2, etc. I can't justify buying a second Xbox 1 just for System Link

I have an orig. box, but if i wanna get new games now, how will i know which games will work on the 360? I just got the demo for "Juiced", and it looks pretty good. i wanna get it, but if im getting the 360 then what's the point? L337d00d. PS. Yanni sucks.

D00D! http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2005/05/12/afx2024549.html Check the last paragraph. Someone's messed up. Either here or at Forbes. L337d00d.

Many of us have 100's tied up in an extensive xbox library. To not be able to use them on the new xbox360 would be lame. I understand the problem of making it backwards compatible, but it would be a wonderful thing. If the 360 would play all of my old games, I wouldn't need my origional xbox. I could trade it in towards the purchase of a 360, and free up more cash to buy extras for the new system. For example, when the PS2 came out, why would anybody keep their PS1. No need! Just upgrade and keep your favorite games. If the 360 is not backwards compatible, then I will adjust, but be sore about it! The PS3 is rumored to be 100% backwards compatible, maybe I should just wait and get a PS3 instead of a xbox360.

xbox is proubly gonna be the best ******* game system ever so go do yourselfs. and the best games to!!!!!!

Hey im thinking of getting a second hand xbox...since they should be relatively cheap now. Will the new games for xbox 360, be able to be played on the old xbox???

hmm...will the NEW XBOX 360 games be playable on the OLD xbox....ARE YOU ******* STUPID NO YOU IDIOT

First off....your all idiots. Unless you think MS is smart for doing this. Like it was stated...if you own dont own an XBOX and you buy an XBOX 360 then you are going to want only top selling titles. If you are running out of space...get rid of that DVD player. Your PS2, and your XBOX both play dvds. Take the DVD player outta the mix and biggity bam! You now have room for an XBOX 360. So stop complaining. Dont be mad that MS has a great product. Your just ticked you didnt think of it first.

I own an XBOX and 2 games. Yes 2 games. I love these games thats why I bought them. I spend my money on computer stuff though, thats why I dont have any more. I hope the XBOX 360 is backwards compatible (BC) so I can use my XBOX as a linux PC. I mean upgrade the ram and hard drive and I am in business. But even if they dont make it BC, I will still install linux. Plus I own Need for Speed underground and Crimson Skies High Road to Revenge. I believe NFS is a best seller and crimson skies is in the 1 year xbox live pack so I am in business.

What Do You Mean who cares wernt you going to get fo your xbox because the xbox 360 is coming out i mean im going to get rid of my Playstation 2 when im ready to buy a playstation 3

Right, who cares about bc? I still have my betamax and laserdisc. No... M$ is not in it for the money. With all their super duper technology, it's REALLY hard for them to make xbox360 bc. Rumors that they bypassed bc just to beat ps3 to the market? So untrue! I'm sure they'll have a patch for xbox BC just like they have for all their Windows OS deficiencies. Too bad my ps2 is BC. I really loved my PS1. I didn't want to donate it to a very happy child. I wanted to keep it just like my 5 1/4 floppy disk drive! Yay, i get to keep my lunky xbox when I buy my xbox360! I love Bill Gates! Money talks, consumers walk. Yeah, baby! Oh btw, I have two cars because one of them has a cassette and the other has CD. I'll probably buy another one that can play MP3's.