Our heads are still whirling after the announcement of the Xbox One earlier this morning. The event is over, but details are still pouring in. We’ve got two items to highlight real fast. One good, one bad.
Sorry, Xbox 360
What should we do first? The bad or good? Bad it is. The Xbox One will not be backwards compatible with Xbox 360 games. The Verge had a chance to sit down with Marc Whitten, VP of Xbox Live. When asked whether or not the new Xbox One will play older games he said:
“No there’s not. The system is based on a different core architecture, so back-compat doesn’t really work from that perspective.”
It’s a bummer for most people, but understandable when you look at the technology involved. No word on whether select games may be updated as downloads for the future Xbox One. With no new Halo game on the horizon it looks like I’ll be keeping my Xbox 360 around.
Always online? Nay!
Now for the good news. Earlier this year the internent went into a frenzy when rumors circulated that the next Xbox would require a constant internet connection to play games. After the Xbox One reveal, Spike TV’s Geoff Keighly interviewed Don Mattrick, president of Xbox Live. Don went on the record to say that the Xbox One will not require a constant internet connection to play games. It will only need an connection for internet specific activities, like Xbox Live or SmartGlass. Individual games have the option to require a constant internet connection though, depending on what online features they plan to use.
We’ll keep you guys posted on what else we learn.
Source: The Verge
