Digital Foundry vs Xbox One backwards compatibility

[NathObeaN]

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.