(I've reread this many times and I've pared it down, but this is still long and slightly rambly, so apologies ahead of time)
After playing many hours of Xbox 360 games on my Xbox One (via game streaming with Windows 10, because I'm *fancy*), I've come to the conclusion that the 360 emulator is going to be vital to the Xbox One's success, and Microsoft is going about it the right way. This conclusion has little basis in the quality of the emulator itself (which, by the way, is excellent), but in the behavior it brought out of me. In short, Xbox 360 emulation is about bringing in a huge catalog of games to Xbox One to sell to users, rather than to entice with previous purchases.
See, last night I found myself searching the xbox 360 marketplace for cheap games in the hopes I'll get to play them in the future when emulation leaves beta. I felt like I was acting like I do when Steam has a sale. The idea of my hardware suddenly having so many more games was just SO enticing. I actually bought some $5 arcade games with NO proof that I'll be able to play them on my One (and yes, I'm ashamed).
From my behavior, we can extrapolate that backwards compatibility will not be bringing in more money simply by encouraging more Xbox One console sales, but also by having more purchase options for avid users. A quick look at the 360 marketplace shows about 2000 games are available for purchase, which is fairly impressive if you imagine this suddenly all being compatible with the Xbox One (which I know won't be true because at least a few will be held back by license issues). This all gives us just about enough games for there to be Steam-esque sales, with gamers buying, say, Halo 3 for $1.00. All these games are already finished and on the servers, so this is all pure profit potential.
Now, the big question is, what if we get OG Xbox emulation next? That'd add hundreds of more titles that Microsoft can sell again, giving much more profit potential per console with relatively little work. Sure, a good emulator will be tough to make, but not as tough as making another thousand games within a year. Heck, maybe they can throw in MSX emulation just to cheaply chase the money they can make from selling retro games for pennies on the dollar, and maybe making a slightly bigger dent in Japan (the MSX was highly popular in Japan).
Gentleman, we may be looking at a HUGE boon for Xbox in general.
After playing many hours of Xbox 360 games on my Xbox One (via game streaming with Windows 10, because I'm *fancy*), I've come to the conclusion that the 360 emulator is going to be vital to the Xbox One's success, and Microsoft is going about it the right way. This conclusion has little basis in the quality of the emulator itself (which, by the way, is excellent), but in the behavior it brought out of me. In short, Xbox 360 emulation is about bringing in a huge catalog of games to Xbox One to sell to users, rather than to entice with previous purchases.
See, last night I found myself searching the xbox 360 marketplace for cheap games in the hopes I'll get to play them in the future when emulation leaves beta. I felt like I was acting like I do when Steam has a sale. The idea of my hardware suddenly having so many more games was just SO enticing. I actually bought some $5 arcade games with NO proof that I'll be able to play them on my One (and yes, I'm ashamed).
From my behavior, we can extrapolate that backwards compatibility will not be bringing in more money simply by encouraging more Xbox One console sales, but also by having more purchase options for avid users. A quick look at the 360 marketplace shows about 2000 games are available for purchase, which is fairly impressive if you imagine this suddenly all being compatible with the Xbox One (which I know won't be true because at least a few will be held back by license issues). This all gives us just about enough games for there to be Steam-esque sales, with gamers buying, say, Halo 3 for $1.00. All these games are already finished and on the servers, so this is all pure profit potential.
Now, the big question is, what if we get OG Xbox emulation next? That'd add hundreds of more titles that Microsoft can sell again, giving much more profit potential per console with relatively little work. Sure, a good emulator will be tough to make, but not as tough as making another thousand games within a year. Heck, maybe they can throw in MSX emulation just to cheaply chase the money they can make from selling retro games for pennies on the dollar, and maybe making a slightly bigger dent in Japan (the MSX was highly popular in Japan).
Gentleman, we may be looking at a HUGE boon for Xbox in general.
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