EXCLUSIVE: Xbox President Sarah Bond has set up a new team dedicated to game preservation and forward compatibility

[Windows Central]

Per emails confirmed to be genuine by Microsoft, Xbox President Sarah Bond has set up a new team dedicated to ensuring Xbox games can be played on all sorts of future hardware.

EXCLUSIVE: Xbox President Sarah Bond has set up a new team dedicated to game preservation and forward compatibility : Read more

 

[fjtorres5591]

Microsoft needs to build full OGXBOX and 360 emulators for the current and future hardware. No need to embellish the experience: just let the game play as it did on the older boxes. Sure auto HDR, frame rate boost, etc are nice, when possible but game preservation's floor starts with being able to play the game. Even if the licenses have expired: if you have the disk, the disk should run. Period.

After all, if unlicensed emulators exist and work fine, created without the rrsources of XBOX staff, why can't they be replicated inhouse? I have dozens of great older games I have to dig out the old hardware to play and will lose when the old boxes die. Will I have to venture into the world of ROMS and pirate software just to p!ay games I legally paid for?

It's doable, so why doesn't XBOX do it?

It's been over 17 years since 360 and more since OG so any applicable patents covering the old hardware have expired. There is no excuse but lack of desire.

Its good to hear Bond talk game preservation but it would be better if backwards compatibility extended beyond games on the XBOX store. Full emulators, please?

 

[Jez Corden]

@fjtorres5591 the answer is licensing. xbox 360 gen and beforee, not a lot of mind was paid to how licenses might expire for things like music, assets, even sound effects. the games available on xbox back compat were the ones their legal team were able to lock down in perpetuity licenses for. the same extneds to putting xbox games in general on windows pc. its a licensing process, rather than a technological one. i reckon most of the effort here will be dedicated to solving licensing issues rather than technological ones.

 

[fjtorres5591]

@fjtorres5591 the answer is licensing. xbox 360 gen and beforee, not a lot of mind was paid to how licenses might expire for things like music, assets, even sound effects. the games available on xbox back compat were the ones their legal team were able to lock down in perpetuity licenses for. the same extneds to putting xbox games in general on windows pc. its a licensing process, rather than a technological one. i reckon most of the effort here will be dedicated to solving licensing issues rather than technological ones.

What do licenses have to do with *already purchased* Disks? Or emulating Microsoft's own hardware?

I own both of the RAVEN ACTIVISION XMEN LEGENDS FOR XBOX; what does it matter that Activision can't sell new copies? Game licenses have no bearing on standalone *hardware" emulators.

I get that MS might object is somebody distributes a 360 emulator because it infringes on their IP but why not sell an emulator for disks themselves? If they care about game preservation what is more natural that letting *their* new hardware emulate *their* older hardware? Isn't what ARM SURFACE laptops do already?

Or is "preservation" only about preserving what they can sell *now*, not what they sold in the past? Mind you, that is what Sony does with their endless paid upgrades and remasters but they don't cloak themselves in virtuous "preservation" talk and let money grabs be called money grabs.

 

[HeyCori]

Now make Jet Set Radio Future backwards compatible, you cowards!

 

[fjtorres5591]

What do licenses have to do with *already purchased* Disks? Or emulating Microsoft's own hardware?

I own both of the RAVEN ACTIVISION XMEN LEGENDS FOR XBOX; what does it matter that Activision can't sell new copies? Game licenses have no bearing on standalone *hardware" emulators.

I get that MS might object is somebody distributes a 360 emulator because it infringes on their IP but why not sell an emulator for disks themselves? If they care about game preservation what is more natural that letting *their* new hardware emulate *their* older hardware? Isn't what ARM SURFACE laptops do already?

Or is "preservation" only about preserving what they can sell *now*, not what they sold in the past? Mind you, that is what Sony does with their endless paid upgrades and remasters but they don't cloak themselves in virtuous "preservation" talk and let money grabs be called money grabs.

To be clear:
I'm not asking MS to make XENIA or any of the unlicensed "ROM"/ISO based emulators a part of XBOX. Or that they make the ability to play old games directly on disk a standard feature--that would be too kind of them and too much game preservation for a for-profit business.

But a reasonably priced general emulator akin to the developer mode product would be a revenue source itself. Say $50?

An emulator that only works off old disk content violates no licenses or patents.

Absent that, the options are to use an unlicensed emulator (all over the internet) within developer mode or on a cheap PC and use pirate software instead of legally purchased disks.

Again: is SOFTWARE PRESERVATION only for software they can sell now? To benefit XBOX now or benefit the comunity that has been supporting it for 20+ years?

Is that too much to ask?

 

[Jez Corden]

What do licenses have to do with *already purchased* Disks? Or emulating Microsoft's own hardware?

I own both of the RAVEN ACTIVISION XMEN LEGENDS FOR XBOX; what does it matter that Activision can't sell new copies? Game licenses have no bearing on standalone *hardware" emulators.

I get that MS might object is somebody distributes a 360 emulator because it infringes on their IP but why not sell an emulator for disks themselves? If they care about game preservation what is more natural that letting *their* new hardware emulate *their* older hardware? Isn't what ARM SURFACE laptops do already?

Or is "preservation" only about preserving what they can sell *now*, not what they sold in the past? Mind you, that is what Sony does with their endless paid upgrades and remasters but they don't cloak themselves in virtuous "preservation" talk and let money grabs be called money grabs.

owning the disc doesnt actually give you real "ownership" of the game. check the small print. the ability to run the game is still at the discretion of the platform holders.

however i agree with the sentiment, but consumer protection law doesn't work like this when it comes to owning discs. it doesn't mean you actually own the game, just a discretionary license.

i have, however, asked sources about whether or not the game preservation effort extends to discs, because it really should. i agree.