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RUMOR: Next Xbox to be “Forward-Compatible”

PKerr

Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Xbox Evolved has been known for posting some outlandish rumors in the past. After all back in early 2004 at the end of a rumor-smashing article, we published our own information about the next Xbox (later named Xbox 360 of course) having a hard drive as an option. GameSpy later confirmed that information in 2005, just a month before official details on the Xbox 360 were revealed. At the time it was hard to believe, even for me that the next Xbox wouldn’t require a hard drive like the original Xbox however, the sources were incredibly reliable, and at least one of the same sources have revealed some information on the third Xbox console due sometime between 2010-2012.

One of the most interesting features of the third Xbox besides being able to play all of your Xbox 360 titles, and transfer over your gamertag and gamerscore is forward-compatibility. Backwards-compatibility of course means that a game from the previous generation of systems works on the new systems. An example of this is PlayStation games working on PlayStation 2, or original Xbox games being playable on the Xbox 360 through emulation and software updates.

This is something completely different however. Forward-compatibility means that games made for the Xbox 360 are made even better thanks to the features and hardware of the next Xbox system. This isn’t a side effect of textures being cleaner and upscaled resolution, this is a new animal completely. Imagine playing Gears of War 3 on your Xbox 360 it looks and plays good right? Well imagine that the year after it comes out you go out to buy the next Xbox and it looks even better, it plays even better. Features in the new controller are utilized with the game, the graphics do not only look sharper, but the draw distance is better, the speed is better, framerate, and there are even new features, perhaps even levels via DLC for the game on the third-generation Xbox. GoW3 is of course an example of what this could mean, past the forward-compatibility information, Xbox Evolved has not been given any other information about the next generation of Xbox.

Our sources indicate that Microsoft is in a stage of “testing the waters” before they nail down the final specs of the new machine. Introducing these options early on to developers means that the games they make for the Xbox 360 will have no life on the next platform, and allow them to begin much earlier in figuring out how the next Xbox works.

There are two examples I can think of to better understand what this truly means. Those of you whom are old-school Nintendo fans may remember that if you bought the “Expansion Pak” for Nintendo 64 that it made the visuals much better and opened up far more modes and options in Rareware’ “Perfect Dark”. It could also be compared to playing the PC game “Crysis” on a mid-range setup, updating the videocard, and seeing a world of difference. We will have more on this rumor as it develops.



http://xboxevolved.e-mpire.com/article/3rd_generation_Xbox/4902.html

That kicks ASS!
 
I doubt it will happen, beyond games just running better on more powerful hardware.
Two reasons i think, first i doubt developers will waste time on this feature for 360 games, second there would be less incentive to upgrade to the new 720 version of a game.
 
I think they need to do something like this. Cause the 360 (and the PS3 even worse) has been more like a product refreshment than a product update. There hasnt been much excitement in new titles that fully take advantage of the power of these new systems. I personally feel like both xb360 and PS3 were only done to make more money on people. I mean where are these next generation graphics and features...Oh wait well get them on the "Next Generation"
Good thing I dont buy 360 titles...I burn them...hahaha
 
I'm still living in a fantasy world that assumes the Xbox 720 will take my current hard drive.
As for actively improving old games, I don't see MS doing that. Valve does it because on the PC end, supporting your products 3 years after launch is a good "brand management" tool.
If MS ever did launch patches for old 360 games, I'm sure they'll charge MS space bucks for them.
 
God I hope they don't call it 720, I would prefer something like X Box: Evolution or Revolution...

I feel it must be a lution name :lol:
 
This isn't going to happen. Developers aren't going to go back to old games and do tons of work upgrading them so they look better on the 720. Sure some PC developers do it, but that's because PC gaming is different from console gaming. PC games have longer life spans then console games. Often times when PC games get updated to run better and they get new graphical features it's because the engine was upgraded for a sequel or expansion pack.

The 2 examples they give are BS, the Expansion pack was extra RAM and required that the games be programed to use it, older games didn't magically run better or at higher resolutions with it. And Crysis looking better when you upgrade your videocard to a high end one? That's because everything is there on the disk, the card you had couldn't run the higher end assets before the new videocard.
 
I can see MS using this as some hype marketing tool which means absolutely nothing.

Just more "cool" sounding buzz words
 
So, basically, this is like how Halo 2 has small graphical improvements when you play it on a Xbox 360 ? That's not forwards compatibility.

Forwards compatibility would be if Halo 4 for the Xbox 1440 or whatever also ran on a Xbox 720 just with lower detail settings much like a PC game can be run on old hardware if you sacrifice graphical quality.
 
This isn't unprecedented or new. When you play ps1 games on the ps2 you get the option to turn on faster loading and texture smoothing.
 
Well they could not sort out the 360 and backwards compatibility with original xbox games, so i don't see how they could ever hope to deal with whats being called forward compatibility.
 
The term "forward compatible" is a bit silly because what's described is still backward compatibility. Also, we're already seeing some of this right now via the 360's original Xbox emulation and we'll see more when Sony eventually release a PS2 emulator for the PS3 which will (hopefully) scale the original software, just as the 360 does for Xbox games.

This "rumor" on the whole is probably one of the safest pieces of fabricated news I've come across, of course the next Xbox will be backward compatible, and of course the games will look better and play "better" and faster because the 360 is already doing that with Xbox games.

However, whether we seen new DLC for "old" 360 games, is entirely up to the original developer, I very much doubt most companies will do this as they'll have new software and IP's they want to push.

This is all assuming of course we even get a "new" Xbox and PlayStation in the next 5 years, which isn't all that certain. Frankly I'd be fine with software updates of the kind we've seen for the PS3/360 for the next 5 years.

On the MGS4 rumor front, barring any technical hiccups MGS4 is a decent bet for the 360, after all subsitence came to the Xbox a while after the PS2 release, I don't see why that can't be the case here unless as I said there are technical limitations that prevent this.
 
Well they could not sort out the 360 and backwards compatibility with original xbox games, so i don't see how they could ever hope to deal with whats being called forward compatibility.

To be fair part of the reason for this was that they were moving from an Nvidia processor to an ATI one. I really hope Sony and MS stick with their respective GPU partners into the next generation. I mean it's pretty unlikely that Nvidia and MS will partner up again after the Xbox experience but you never know.

I'd love to see some Cinema HD features from ATI's next generation GPU's utilised in the next Xbox.
 
This isn't unprecedented or new. When you play ps1 games on the ps2 you get the option to turn on faster loading and texture smoothing.
What they're talking about in this article though is pretty far beyond the BC options the PS2 had.

Well they could not sort out the 360 and backwards compatibility with original xbox games, so i don't see how they could ever hope to deal with whats being called forward compatibility.
The reason Xbox 360 BC has such problems is because the hardware isn't even close to the same, Microsoft refuses to put the Xbox 1 GPU in the 360 (they had some problems with Nvidia refusing to cut the price on the GPU when it started to cost them less to manufacture) so they have to emulate the Xbox, which doesn't exactly work well.

Now if Microsoft stays with ATI and IBM as their GPU/CPU partners for the 720 then 360 BC will work much better, especially if they include the 360 chips in the box. It's even possible that if ATI makes the GPUs again they'll include all the features of the 360 GPU in the 720 GPU, and when you put in a 360 game the 720 GPU essentially becomes a 360 GPU like what happens when you put a Gamecube game in the Wii.
 
I think its pretty clear that no one believes this "Forward Compatability" dream.
People would rather the developers learn how to fully use the systems they have right now to their fullest potential. Something that didnt happen for the PS2 till the system had been around for 3-4 years. If they go ahead and step up to another "New" system with bigger and better processors then there is gonna be another learning curve. And they havent even finished this learning curve yet.
I think maybe they should figure out how to use "this" current next-gen system to the fullest before trying to sell us another "next-gen" system that the game developers dont know how to use to its fullest potential...
 
The should be working on new technologies, new ways to play and new interfaces rather than making old games look prettier. I'm not a HUGE gamer, but quite frankly I'm getting tired of the handheld controller schtick. I want something new. I want some truly next gen gaming... something more immersive. The wii's a step in the right direction, but unfortunately, they let the graphical and audio portion of their platform slip.
 
the gamertag setup is cross generational, you'll keep it forever as long as microsoft makes X-boxes, no way in hell will 360 games upgrade like that, Downloadable content? perhaps, but no way will we see anything new like that
 
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