Head of Microsoft's Xbox division Don Mattrick has spoken out to say the Xbox One not featuring backwards compatibility is not much of an issue.

Speaking with The Wall Street Journal, Mattrick said only 5 percent of gamers play past-generation titles on new machines.

Thus, it would not make sense to invest time and resources into creating technology to allow gamers to play older games on the Xbox One, he said.

"If you're backwards compatible, you're really backwards," he said.

The Xbox One will not support Xbox 360 games and Xbox Live Arcade titles players have purchased over the years will not be compatible on the next-generation platform.

The PlayStation 4 is not backwards compatible with physical PlayStation 3 discs or PlayStation Network games, though Sony's partnership with Gaikai will allow users to stream older titles on the new system.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/microsoft-if-youre-backwards-compatible-youre-really-backwards/1100-6408741/

This is an old article I found but it pertains to current events. I found it very interesting. What is everyone's thought on this?

Who cares?

Free is good.

That's a nice spin, that's for sure. Or annoying, if you think like me. Extra value, no matter how small, is extra value and never backwards.

Mattrick isn't on Microsoft anymore, the current people in charge of the "Xbox division" have a much different vision than he did, hence the change on stance.

This is so pointless.

A feature that only 0.1% of people use is worth it for their great experience.

Oh Don he should've got the memo that dumb things said on the internet.. stay on the internet and will come back at any point to bite you.

New head, new rules... Don Matrick was dumb imo. I am glad that the x1 has BC, it makes the console more attempting to buy imo

5% sounds about right to me. I've never heard someone say that bought a Xbox One to play Red Dead Redemption.

It's a silly comment from a different time. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if some Xbox fans were defending that statement back then, while praising B/C now. Either way, B/C is always a great feature. Of course, Mattrick was also correct in that not many take advantage of it and that it's not that big of a deal. I think it's higher than 5% use it, but not that much higher.

I think your thread title is click-bait. At least you could write "Microsoft in 2013: 'If..."

Shall we also make some threads like "Sony: 'Next-Gen begins when we say it does' without indicating it is an old statement?

Besides that: Microsoft has changed a lot since then: new CEO, new Xbox head, new strategies...

My thoughts are that Don Mattrick was an amazing asset to Sony and they have a lot to thank him for in regards to their domination this generation. The PS4 is largely only dominating because of the mistakes this guy made rather than its own successes IMO.

This article just shows you that this guy never should have been allowed to speak publically because he said a lot of stupid things.