3 ms·

This is about selling older games in their digital store, not about ensuring your old disks can still run, right?

jsheard 3y ago
Microsoft's strategy is somewhere between the two, you can put an Xbox 360 disc into a newer Xbox system but what it actually does is download a recompiled version of the game and just uses the original disc as a DRM key to run it. Alternatively you can buy the game digitally and play the recompiled version without a disc, if you want.
- jjulius 3y ago
  Perhaps I'm speaking out of ignorance, but that just seems... excessive. The game's on the disc, why not just play it instead of downloading the whole damn thing? Can someone explain why this option is preferable to just playing what's on the disc? Edit: Three immediate, simultaneous, and helpful responses - thank you! :)
  - airstrike 3y ago
    you'd have to emulate the 360 arch in software so just probably just easier to download a recompiled game than to solve all emulation challenges and edge cases
    - chatmasta 3y ago
      I believe that Microsoft actually does emulate the 360 [0] [1]. But compiling the game allows them to deal with some subtleties and also provide upscaled assets where possible. [0] https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Fission https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Fission [1] https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/10/23/the-untold-story-of-xbox-one-backwards-compatibility https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/10/23/the-untold-story-of-...
  - ihuman 3y ago
    The version it downloads isn't the version on the disk. The disc version is compiled for the Xbox 360, not the One/Series.
    - leni536 3y ago
      I guess it could still use the assets on the disk, in theory.
    - mikerg87 3y ago
      Xbox games are all VM images so im not it’s even sure it’s recompiled as much as emulated. All they are probably doing is ensuring compatibility . Dave Cutler said XBox is a variant of hyper-v.
      - hypercube33 3y ago
        Yep and each game comes with a weird windows os it runs the game with. XB360 was the power PC one so it has to do something to emulate it -- since hyperv doesn't emulate it may swap the OS or something
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- koolba 3y ago
  So one can buy a bunch of cheap Xbox 360/one disks from eBay and they’ll work on a modern Xbox?
  - jsheard 3y ago
    Yep, as long as the 360 games are in the 1/3rd or so of the library which got backwards compatibility support. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_backward-compatible_games_for_Xbox_One_and_Series_X/S#List_of_compatible_titles_from_Xbox_360 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_backward-compatible_ga... All Xbox One games will run on the current Xbox Series systems.
    - koolba 3y ago
      That’s pretty neat. And none of that account creation or signup stuff that plagues all modern games? EDIT: whoa that has original Xbox games too? Like classic Halo?
      - jsheard 3y ago
        Some original Xbox games also work but the library is much more limited, only 63 titles are supported, while the 360 has 633. Halo 1 isn't one of them but they did do a remaster of that for newer systems at least.

Microsoft's strategy is somewhere between the two, you can put an Xbox 360 disc into a newer Xbox system but what it actually does is download a recompiled version of the game and just uses the original disc as a DRM key to run it. Alternatively you can buy the game digitally and play the recompiled version without a disc, if you want.

jjulius 3y ago
Perhaps I'm speaking out of ignorance, but that just seems... excessive. The game's on the disc, why not just play it instead of downloading the whole damn thing? Can someone explain why this option is preferable to just playing what's on the disc? Edit: Three immediate, simultaneous, and helpful responses - thank you! :)
- airstrike 3y ago
  you'd have to emulate the 360 arch in software so just probably just easier to download a recompiled game than to solve all emulation challenges and edge cases
  - chatmasta 3y ago
    I believe that Microsoft actually does emulate the 360 [0] [1]. But compiling the game allows them to deal with some subtleties and also provide upscaled assets where possible. [0] https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Fission https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Fission [1] https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/10/23/the-untold-story-of-xbox-one-backwards-compatibility https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/10/23/the-untold-story-of-...
- ihuman 3y ago
  The version it downloads isn't the version on the disk. The disc version is compiled for the Xbox 360, not the One/Series.
  - leni536 3y ago
    I guess it could still use the assets on the disk, in theory.
  - mikerg87 3y ago
    Xbox games are all VM images so im not it’s even sure it’s recompiled as much as emulated. All they are probably doing is ensuring compatibility . Dave Cutler said XBox is a variant of hyper-v.
    - hypercube33 3y ago
      Yep and each game comes with a weird windows os it runs the game with. XB360 was the power PC one so it has to do something to emulate it -- since hyperv doesn't emulate it may swap the OS or something
- deleted 3y ago
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- deleted 3y ago
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koolba 3y ago
So one can buy a bunch of cheap Xbox 360/one disks from eBay and they’ll work on a modern Xbox?
- jsheard 3y ago
  Yep, as long as the 360 games are in the 1/3rd or so of the library which got backwards compatibility support. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_backward-compatible_games_for_Xbox_One_and_Series_X/S#List_of_compatible_titles_from_Xbox_360 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_backward-compatible_ga... All Xbox One games will run on the current Xbox Series systems.
  - koolba 3y ago
    That’s pretty neat. And none of that account creation or signup stuff that plagues all modern games? EDIT: whoa that has original Xbox games too? Like classic Halo?
    - jsheard 3y ago
      Some original Xbox games also work but the library is much more limited, only 63 titles are supported, while the 360 has 633. Halo 1 isn't one of them but they did do a remaster of that for newer systems at least.