Rumor: Next Xbox to be 'Forward-Compatible'

dCiSo · 10-15-2008, 04:06 PM

Quote:

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-compatibly. 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-compatibly information, Xbox Evolved has not been given any other information about the next generation of Xbox.

Full Story: Xbox Evolved - Xbox 360 and Xbox Info, Reviews, Previews, Videos and more at Xbox Evolved

Spyman · 10-19-2008, 04:48 AM

That would be so freaking cool !

UnbreakableIdea · 10-19-2008, 03:32 PM

I'm turning a suspicious eye towards this announcement. Can anyone find a second source for this? I mean, the code on the disc is what it is. I can't see how running it on new hardware would make a huge difference, after all, games are coded to the specs of the specific system that they appear on. I could see games looking a little smoother and perhaps framerates being a little more solid, but that's not what they seem to be talking about here. The only way I could see this happening in real life (not Fantasy Land) is with it being limited to only a very few titles, likely first party, in which the programmers already know the specs of the next Xbox, and take the time and money to include extra code on the disc specifically for a system that's not even out yet. It's either that, or they have to release additional code later on using DLC after the next Xbox comes out (and getting the sort of a difference out of a game as described above would certainly require a lot of time and money for a developer to produce). As for this DLC aspect, they could do that now with Xbox1 games if they wanted to (new levels, etc.), and it would be the same thing, so that's not really any different than what the current system can already do, and thus doesn't qualify as forward-compatability in my book. So this, if true (I'm not convinced), would require developers that have the specs of the next Xbox (and a desire to waste money enhancing it for a system that isn't out yet), or the desire to release expensive to produce DLC content for a last gen game, which isn't any different than what they could, but don't really do now. Am I wrong? Does anyone have another source to back these wild claims up? Does forward-compatability make any sense to anyone from either a business or technological standpoint? It doesn't to me. Sounds like either a bogus rumor or overblown hype that would only apply to a couple of games.

I'm no hater, though. It would, if they did somehow pull this off entirely with a new hardware system, be the goddamn most awesome thing ever accomplished.