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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Digital Foundry vs Xbox One backwards compatibility

BMaker11 said:
NathObeaN said:

How are GOTY releases anything like remasters? If I purchase a game and all the DLC and then a GOTY edition comes out, what's the point in buying it? Whereas with a decent remaster, I might wait 5-10 years to reply a classic game that has been rebuilt with new visuals etc and has additonal content. 2 completely different things. For example, I played Halo 1 as a kid but never played it with anyone because the coop and MP was local only and I never got the chance when I was younger. When the anniversary edition came out it enabled me to play it online cooperatively and play the MP maps with people. Those kind of benifits are nothing like a 'GOTY' edition.

I have a PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, so no, BC is not a big deal for me personally. However, I know quite a few people that have an Xbox 360 and want to upgrade to this gen but don't want to trade in their old console and buy a new one knowing they can never touch their game library again (many people can't afford to buy a new console outright). This feature allows them to do just that.

As for the whole 'but it's limited' and 'but the performance dip'... It's only JUST been announced. It is still under the preview program and isn't coming out for another 6 months. At launch it will have over 100 games and even then, more games will be added over time.

My main point about it being 'free' is that people are criticising it and trying to poke holes it in, when it's free. What is there to complain about? Even if the performance was 50% and you could only play 50 games, it's free, there isn't anything to moan about? No one is being asked to pay a dime for this feature yet people still rant on the internet about it, bonkers if you ask me.

EDIT: I will also add, as an existing Xbox 360 owner, it just adds convenience. Occasionally I do want to play a 360 game, this feature means I don't have to turn on my old console, I just pop the disc in. It also means I can use the new controller, stay in touch with friends on XBL, take screenshots/videos if I want and hopefully in the future enjoy better performance (DF already noted 100% VSync).

I think you misinterpreted "remaster" with "remake". Remasters, like Borderlands: Handsome Collection, Gears Ultimate Edition, TLOU:R, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition. Games that got visually tweaked, performance enhanced, and all the DLC for it, all in one package. These are games where you're "charged again for the same game", just like a GOTY version of a game. 

I know the BC is in beta right now, but you know as well as everyone else that it won't be "true" BC, and because of that, there will be hiccups in games. And even with hundred of games being supposedly added (MS said the same thing about OG Xbox games being added to the 360 but that just never happened), my point would still stand that you have to actually buy those games to play them, so it's not "free" to play them. So everyone needs to stop saying "you won't have pay to play games you own, because this is free". If you don't own the game, then you have to pay to own it. Do you own a copy of say, Halo 4? No? Then how will it be "free" to play on XBOne when you have to go purchase the game? That's the issue I take with "paying to play what you own" (this is a shot at PSNow). It makes the assumption that you own the entire library, but you don't, so you have to pay for a game, just like you would if you went to Gamestop to buy a game. 

Knowing that there will performance issues and games "will be added" (as in, they aren't there yet. They'll come later), if you have a 360 now, would it make any sense to sell it? If I still want to play Prototype, I wouldn't sell my 360 because "I don't need it anymore, since XBOne has BC"....and Prototype ain't even BC compatible, yet, and will probably play worse than on 360. 

I don't understand what you're trying to say though (sorry if I am misunderstanding)? Of course, if you don't own a game then you have to buy it? If you already own a 360 game (Halo 4 for your example) and you want an Xbox One but can't afford it unless you trade in your 360, this feature allows you to upgrade to next gen whilst maintaining your existing library. You don't have to pay any extra money in order to keep playing those games on your new console (other than the new console itself).

PS Now that you refer to requires that you purchase the game on that service even if you own the disc already?

As for re-masters, no, a decent re-master is not the same as paying for the same content again. Anyway, GOTY editions are normally designed for those that want the game and all the content in one bundle and have waited for the price to drop.

Yes, some re-masters are just there to milk money and they suck, not all are like that though. My example given is paying for: better visuals/sound/animations, extra features (online coop and online multiplayer), new videos/cinematics and other bonus in-game content. Hell, it even came with voice commands (admittedly a gimmick, but new features nonetheless).

A re-master should offer significant content to warrant the purchase (such as visual/sound/animation upgrades and new features and content. If a re-master is simply 1080p, then yes, I would say that is a money grab. Maybe if you already owned the game and you could pay $5 to ‘unlock’ 1080p then maybe that would be better. I don’t think it is worth charging consumers the full price again though.

Then again, isn’t that what Blu-Ray is!? Ah well, argument is invalid lol



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It's still in the early stages, correct? It's probably more appropriate to judge its performance when it's finalized.



Official Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Thread

                                      

Skullwaker said:
It's still in the early stages, correct? It's probably more appropriate to judge its performance when it's finalized.


Yeah this is what I was going to say.

Can't only Xbox Preview members even use the BC currently anyway? It's still way in the early stages and I imagine it will get better as time goes by. It explains why it's launching with so little titles with more to come in the future. 



NathObeaN said:

I don't understand what you're trying to say though (sorry if I am misunderstanding)? Of course, if you don't own a game then you have to buy it? If you already own a 360 game (Halo 4 for your example) and you want an Xbox One but can't afford it unless you trade in your 360, this feature allows you to upgrade to next gen whilst maintaining your existing library. You don't have to pay any extra money in order to keep playing those games on your new console (other than the new console itself).

PS Now that you refer to requires that you purchase the game on that service even if you own the disc already?

As for re-masters, no, a decent re-master is not the same as paying for the same content again. Anyway, GOTY editions are normally designed for those that want the game and all the content in one bundle and have waited for the price to drop.

Yes, some re-masters are just there to milk money and they suck, not all are like that though. My example given is paying for: better visuals/sound/animations, extra features (online coop and online multiplayer), new videos/cinematics and other bonus in-game content. Hell, it even came with voice commands (admittedly a gimmick, but new features nonetheless).

A re-master should offer significant content to warrant the purchase (such as visual/sound/animation upgrades and new features and content. If a re-master is simply 1080p, then yes, I would say that is a money grab. Maybe if you already owned the game and you could pay $5 to ‘unlock’ 1080p then maybe that would be better. I don’t think it is worth charging consumers the full price again though.

Then again, isn’t that what Blu-Ray is!? Ah well, argument is invalid lol

The original comment you replied to was referring to how people made fun of PS4 owners for being excited for remastered games, then those people turned around and are now excited for non-remastered, underperforming BC games. You said "the difference is that this is free".

It's not free, if you don't own the game already (as in, games already existing in your library right now), so at the end of the day, you're still spending money to play a game. People keep tossing out "free", but are you only going to play the games you currently have and never get another one? Or are you going to get more games that you haven't played yet? If you're going to get more games, then you'll be spending money to do that. No different than buying a remastered game for current gen. 

And not a single remaster of this gen has been just a 1080p up-rez. They'll all had performance enhancements (draw distance increases, better/more stable FPS, less pop-in, character models enhanced, etc) and include all DLC released for the game. No way you just pay a "$5 unlock" for this if you own the prior gen copy of the game. 

Without bringing PSNow too much into an XBOne BC thread, yea, you'd still have to pay to stream it if you owned the disc.....but if you owned the disc, why stream it? That's like owning a BluRay of the Avengers, then complaining that you have to pay for Netflix to stream the Avengers. 

People who never owned a 360 can now play those games on XBOne? If they never owned a 360, then they probably don't have 360 games. If they don't have 360 games, then they'll have to go out and purchase them. Therefore, it's not "free" to play these games. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, outside of the current library of 360 games you have at the moment, you don't get to play any other games for "free" just because of BC on XBOne. You have to pay for those. And that's no different paying to rent games on PSNow, so the "pay for games you own" argument is bunk. 



BMaker11 said:
NathObeaN said:

I don't understand what you're trying to say though (sorry if I am misunderstanding)? Of course, if you don't own a game then you have to buy it? If you already own a 360 game (Halo 4 for your example) and you want an Xbox One but can't afford it unless you trade in your 360, this feature allows you to upgrade to next gen whilst maintaining your existing library. You don't have to pay any extra money in order to keep playing those games on your new console (other than the new console itself).

PS Now that you refer to requires that you purchase the game on that service even if you own the disc already?

As for re-masters, no, a decent re-master is not the same as paying for the same content again. Anyway, GOTY editions are normally designed for those that want the game and all the content in one bundle and have waited for the price to drop.

Yes, some re-masters are just there to milk money and they suck, not all are like that though. My example given is paying for: better visuals/sound/animations, extra features (online coop and online multiplayer), new videos/cinematics and other bonus in-game content. Hell, it even came with voice commands (admittedly a gimmick, but new features nonetheless).

A re-master should offer significant content to warrant the purchase (such as visual/sound/animation upgrades and new features and content. If a re-master is simply 1080p, then yes, I would say that is a money grab. Maybe if you already owned the game and you could pay $5 to ‘unlock’ 1080p then maybe that would be better. I don’t think it is worth charging consumers the full price again though.

Then again, isn’t that what Blu-Ray is!? Ah well, argument is invalid lol

The original comment you replied to was referring to how people made fun of PS4 owners for being excited for remastered games, then those people turned around and are now excited for non-remastered, underperforming BC games. You said "the difference is that this is free".

It's not free, if you don't own the game already (as in, games already existing in your library right now), so at the end of the day, you're still spending money to play a game. People keep tossing out "free", but are you only going to play the games you currently have and never get another one? Or are you going to get more games that you haven't played yet? If you're going to get more games, then you'll be spending money to do that. No different than buying a remastered game for current gen. 

And not a single remaster of this gen has been just a 1080p up-rez. They'll all had performance enhancements (draw distance increases, better/more stable FPS, less pop-in, character models enhanced, etc) and include all DLC released for the game. No way you just pay a "$5 unlock" for this if you own the prior gen copy of the game. 

Without bringing PSNow too much into an XBOne BC thread, yea, you'd still have to pay to stream it if you owned the disc.....but if you owned the disc, why stream it? That's like owning a BluRay of the Avengers, then complaining that you have to pay for Netflix to stream the Avengers. 

People who never owned a 360 can now play those games on XBOne? If they never owned a 360, then they probably don't have 360 games. If they don't have 360 games, then they'll have to go out and purchase them. Therefore, it's not "free" to play these games. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, outside of the current library of 360 games you have at the moment, you don't get to play any other games for "free" just because of BC on XBOne. You have to pay for those. And that's no different paying to rent games on PSNow, so the "pay for games you own" argument is bunk. 

To address these 2 highlighted points, I think you're missing the whole point of BC. The point of BC is for those that DO already own the game, they want to trade in their 360 but keep hold of their game library and not pay extra to continue playing their old games? Saying 'well it's not free because the games cost money in the first place' is daft, I really don't understand what you're getting at?

MS is not promoting the service as 'play every 360 game for free'. They are promoting it as 'play your existing 360 games on X1 for no additional cost (free)'.

The point with PS Now, if you traded in your PS3 to get a PS4 and still have your PS3 games lying around, you can't use your disc. If you want to play (for example) Mass Effect 2 on your PS4, you have no choice but to pay for the PS Now version, you cannot use your existing PS3 disc, it's useless to you now. Not only that, but you don't 'own' the game with PS Now, it's a service; stop paying your subscription and it disappears. Also, the whole point of BC is to hold onto old games. What happens when the PS Now servers turn off or the licence expires for the game you want to play? It's not consumer friendly, BC is. I don't want to turn this into a PS Now vs. XB1 BC, I'm just making a point that this is a good feature.

As for the Avengers example, no, that's like owning a DVD player (current gen console) and a DVD copy of the Avengers (current gen game), but in order to upgrade to a Blu-Ray player (next gen console), your DVD copy of the Avengers doesn't work, so the only way you can watch the Avengers on your new system is to stream it via Netflix (PS Now) or buy the Blu-Ray (next gen remaster), your Blu-Ray player is not compatible with the DVD you already have.

Thankfully, Blu-Ray is BC and we don't need 2 seperate units in our cabinets.



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Pretty close what I said in other thread.

- Emulation of 360's via Virtual Machine
- Games needs a new binary
- Games needs to be worked/fixed game by game
- Some game will need more work and other less
- ME is unplayed until MS fix it to run fine
- Only a bunch of games that MS worked/fixed will run

It is like the 360 BC... the in interest in work in new games will say how much we will have working at the end of the gen.



NathObeaN said:
The most important part of this article that no one seems to be acknowledging?..

'Right now, as you might expect from early preview code, the virtual machine works and the fact that it does work is simply astonishing.'

This technology is still well and truly under Beta conditions (hence you can only access it in the Preview Program), give it time people. The fact that it works at all is something we should be celebrating. It's free. MS could have easily re-released all these games and charged people for them. I am glad that this may be one step towards ending the remastering frenzy the industry is currently under. Instead, they've enabled the ability to play your existing games so you can trade in your old console and it's completely free. Stop being so negative ;)

Yep it's pretty awesome they got it to work, yet it will get much harder for later games.

Early games are not optimized that well and follow the API step by step. There are many inefficiences mostly in threads waiting for eachother. That gives an emulator time to catch up in all those micro pauses. As games get optimized those spaces get filled and more efficient tighter loops are used that depend on the full 3.2 ghz. When the devs get more confident error checking and waiting for events can be optimized away. Threads don't  need to wait for another to be finished anymore, they can simply assume it is there in time. Why add a traffic light if A always happens before B. With emulation those absolute certainties aren't always there, causing random corruption, a nightmare to debug.

Games that use the EDram to the max also have a problem on XBox One. 360's EDram is 256 GB/s while XBox One's eSRAM maxes out at 204 GB/s. (And that's a indeal combination of 102 in and 102 out simultaneaously)

The 80/20 rule will slow conversion of titles down. Early games that run straight from DVD without any HDD cache will be easiest to get working. Yet it will be a long road before Skyrim, Bioshock Infinite and Forza 4 get supported.

I'm not trading in my 360. The fact that PDZ, a launch game, already has performance problems tells me it will be a long time before late gen games get a chance to work, if at all.



Pretty much expected. Software emulation isn't ever going to be perfect. Even on the most powerful of machines, it's never going to run all games as well as on native hardware. Still, its impressive they managed to get 360 games running on the XB1.



Good grief, VGC never fails to disappoint. Let's whine about something cause it makes a bunch of people happy and works well.

If you look at the game it actually lower screen tearing. Seriously, who likes that?

Nope, seems to run better - and this isn't even official on the console yet.




 

Really not sure I see any point of Consol over PC's since Kinect, Wii and other alternative ways to play have been abandoned. 

Top 50 'most fun' game list coming soon!

 

Tell me a funny joke!

Yet I was basically called a liar for saying Mass Effect was sub-par just the other day.

Just imagine what the games that tax the 360 will do.