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Fan asks Spencer for backwards compat, Spencer pats fan on head and says he supports

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So the Xbox One gets backwards compatibility by spinning up a virtual Xbox 360, and it seems like each of the games you download for BC have a little piece of the VM necessary to run smoothly for that particular game

Is it truly impossible for the PS4 to do the same? To have a general PS3 virtual machine with game downloads containing pieces that help that specific game run well?
 

jaypah

Member
This really was cool, can't really downplay it. Well, I mean you can but you kinda show your hand if you do. I wish Sony could do it but no biggie, I'll just keep the PS3 around.
 
So the Xbox One gets backwards compatibility by spinning up a virtual Xbox 360, and it seems like each of the games you download for BC have a little piece of the VM necessary to run smoothly for that particular game

Is it truly impossible for the PS4 to do the same? To have a general PS3 virtual machine with game downloads containing pieces that help that specific game run well?

Is it actually a virtualbox type thing? I thought it was recompiled?
 
Phil Spencer said on the Bombcast it was around a year ago they were seriously looking at BC.

Yeh, think I misread the date of the OP. They are clearly listening to what people want and these things are happening, seems like more than telling people what they want to hear to me.

I have no doubts but it doesn't change the fact of what he was doing at the time.

So what other examples do you have of this?

Is it actually a virtualbox type thing? I thought it was recompiled?

They said on Giantbomb that they basically just emulated the entire thing. The games don't realise they're on an Xbox One, it all things its just on an Xbox 360, but they then run the entire BC set-up as a "game" on the Xbox One so you can use system features like screenshots, video recording and streaming
 

Kyzer

Banned
So the Xbox One gets backwards compatibility by spinning up a virtual Xbox 360, and it seems like each of the games you download for BC have a little piece of the VM necessary to run smoothly for that particular game

Is it truly impossible for the PS4 to do the same? To have a general PS3 virtual machine with game downloads containing pieces that help that specific game run well?

I have no idea how possible it is but it would probably be a nightmare to try and emulate the ps3 right?


Anyways. Idk. Only thing that changed since xb1gate is the president right? All these guys were in on that decision :(
 
So the Xbox One gets backwards compatibility by spinning up a virtual Xbox 360, and it seems like each of the games you download for BC have a little piece of the VM necessary to run smoothly for that particular game

Is it truly impossible for the PS4 to do the same? To have a general PS3 virtual machine with game downloads containing pieces that help that specific game run well?

According to Spencer the emulator runs all games exactly the same way, no custom bits on a per game basis. It doesn't work like the OG Xbox on 360 emulation.

He said the only thing Microsoft has to do is QA pass then release. All the work is done already except for the multi disc title which will need some custom work since they all do things slightly differently. Some ask you to swap discs mid game, some install one then play from the other disc, etc.
 
It was said in a time where Spencer was just saying everything people wanted to hear so it's not surprising to see the majority of people disagreeing with it and not believing. But, if we ignore that... sure, crow for everyone.

Do you have other examples of that?
 

B3N1

Member
Yes, I agree. That's why I was surprised at the lack of enthusiasm shown by some people (which seemed like a lot of people to me) after MS announced it.

The people who voted 4 Call of Duty titles by now into the top 10 requests (although RDR is No1).

I liked the idea but never belived they could do go through with it. I don't think I even voted on it because back then the system had more important problems.
 
According to Spencer the emulator runs all games exactly the same way, no custom bits on a per game basis. It doesn't work like the OG Xbox on 360 emulation.

Huh, the more you know. I thought someone had pointed out in the main Xbox BC thread that the game download sizes were way different on XB1 vs Xbox 360, which lead me to believe they contained extra stuff in there to run smoothly
 

Madness

Member
So the Xbox One gets backwards compatibility by spinning up a virtual Xbox 360, and it seems like each of the games you download for BC have a little piece of the VM necessary to run smoothly for that particular game

Is it truly impossible for the PS4 to do the same? To have a general PS3 virtual machine with game downloads containing pieces that help that specific game run well?

Xbox architecture much better designed and simpler than the absolute shitshow that was the PS3 and their cell processor and architecture. It's probably not impossible, but Sony is always behind when it comes to software, MS has always been leaps and bounds ahead of them in this area. Probably much easier for them to do, whereas Sony probably feels it's not as warranted. Plus they're making sweet sweet money on remasters.
 
Huh, the more you know. I thought someone had pointed out in the main Xbox BC thread that the game download sizes were way different on XB1 vs Xbox 360, which lead me to believe they contained extra stuff in there to run smoothly

Some game sizes are bigger, N+ is 48 times bigger on XB1 compared to its original 360 release, not sure why that is, Viva Piñata Trouble in Paradise seemed about the same size though.
 

DopeyFish

Not bitter, just unsweetened
Is it actually a virtualbox type thing? I thought it was recompiled?

Nah. They don't have the source code for the games, at least from my understanding they don't.

But they do have the masters for every game due to requiring them for the store, updates, etc.

So they probably have a system where the repackage the titles to operate in XB1 environment and have an emulator.

It seems like it's a more fluid system compared to the xbox->xbox 360 compatibility

Instead of doing lots of patches to get games functioning (and missing stuff) they now can get most games functioning right away and then apply patches to fix incompatibility issues... will be really interesting to see what games they can't get to work.
 

piratethingy

Self professed bad raider
I'm going to buy an Xbox One because of this. I can't not support this. If they were making you pay again for games that'd be one thing, but they are putting in the work to make this work, and all I have to do is pop my old games in and it'll download? So cool.
 

Hagi

Member
Is there a need for it on PS4 once PSNow's rolled out ?

I think there is a need to not have to rent games I already own so yeah.

If I had an Xbox this would be a pretty killer feature, I kept my copy of Tales of Vesperia and it would be awesome to be able to actually play it.
 
Huh, the more you know. I thought someone had pointed out in the main Xbox BC thread that the game download sizes were way different on XB1 vs Xbox 360, which lead me to believe they contained extra stuff in there to run smoothly

Might have something to do with compression and that each game is downloading the emulator and Xbox 360 OS as well in its "container". Its still in preview, they may rework some things but as of right now the games are usually +500MB or so compared to the 360 titles.
 

Steel

Banned
So the Xbox One gets backwards compatibility by spinning up a virtual Xbox 360, and it seems like each of the games you download for BC have a little piece of the VM necessary to run smoothly for that particular game

Is it truly impossible for the PS4 to do the same? To have a general PS3 virtual machine with game downloads containing pieces that help that specific game run well?

Isn't the PS3's processor actually marginally faster than the PS4s?
 
I'm going to buy an Xbox One because of this. I can't not support this. If they were making you pay again for games that'd be one thing, but they are putting in the work to make this work, and all I have to do is pop my old games in and it'll download? So cool.

Same. I hope they also add in a virtual OG Xbox, that'd be just icing, and to keep the backwards compatibility stuff into their future consoles

If they do, they have a lifelong customer on their hands
 

rokkerkory

Member
Same. I hope they also add in a virtual OG Xbox, that'd be just icing, and to keep the backwards compatibility stuff into their future consoles

If they do, they have a lifelong customer on their hands

I think this is the entire point. MS is all about s/w and it shows. BC should be a standard going forward with all Xbox platforms.
 
I need Lost Odyssey to be on that list ASAP.

Phil specifically called out lost odyssey on giantbomb last night. He said they are working on it but it will take longer due to it shipping on multiple discs. The way the backwards compatibility works right now, the disc is used as authentication to download the full game from Microsoft servers and then it just runs off the hard drive so long as the disc is in. Hard to do that with a game that came on multiple discs that might ask you to swap or what have you. Obviously digital games you can just download on to the Xbox one straight up and play.
 

Dabanton

Member
I need Lost Odyssey to be on that list ASAP.

No doubt it will be. From what Phil Spencer said on Giant Bomb multi disk games need a bit of tweaking. I expect Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey to be ready for this when it properly launches later this year.
 

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
I'm going to buy an Xbox One because of this. I can't not support this. If they were making you pay again for games that'd be one thing, but they are putting in the work to make this work, and all I have to do is pop my old games in and it'll download? So cool.


I'm not going to buy an Xbox One for it, but it's literally the first time since before the console was announced that I even consider it as a possibility. It's the first thing that doesn't seem like it's just an easy throwaway line that they say to appease people.
 

Percy

Banned
And like clockwork good ol Percy enters the thread to move goalposts and let us all know how much Microsoft sucks

Sorry if I don't want to ballwash... but having been a Wii U owner for the past ~3 years it's hard to really understand such excitement for a very small number of last gen games being playable on a current gen console is all :/

Also, I never even hinted or implied anything about Microsoft "sucking" in any way in my post, so please refrain from putting words in my mouth.
 

rokkerkory

Member
Sorry if I don't want to ballwash... but having been a Wii U owner for the past ~3 years it's hard to really understand such excitement for a very small number of last gen games being playable on a current gen console is all :/

Also, I never even hinted or implied anything about Microsoft "sucking" in any way in my post, so please refrain from putting words in my mouth.

+100 plus games when this will be formally available is a small amount? They will continue to add to the library as well.

If you already invested so much money in games you still enjoy, why can't it play on the same platform going forward? People like that because that value is real.
 
May want to wait before this applies to more than a dozen games before the bragging starts ;)

There might be some cause for crowing if the backwards compatibilty as it currently exists wasn't so limited in what it actually supports.

It was said in a time where Spencer was just saying everything people wanted to hear so it's not surprising to see the majority of people disagreeing with it and not believing. But, if we ignore that... sure, crow for everyone.

You guys couldn't even wait for us to burn the bodies first before you hopped in?
 

Dabanton

Member
So many confident computer science degree holders in here. It definitely looked unlikely a year ago, but I'm glad MS is putting in the effort.

This is whats most delicious about this thread.

If you've got the job status, credentials and working knowledge to back up what you're saying that's one thing, I'll certainly listen. But I see way too many armchair tech know it alls on here who know for a fact why something can't happen.
 
Sorry if I don't want to ballwash... but having been a Wii U owner for the past ~3 years it's hard to really understand such excitement for a very small number of last gen games being playable on a current gen console is all :/

Also, I never even hinted or implied anything about Microsoft "sucking" in any way in my post, so please refrain from putting words in my mouth.

This is very different than Wii U's emulation. The emulation runs as a game/app so all XB1 features can be used along with the emulated games. It's pretty incredible. You don't need to boot your console into an emulation mode, so you can use party chat, twitch streaming, streaming to Windows 10, GameDVR etc... It's pretty amazing stuff. Also, our digital libraries are moving straight over from 360 along with cloud saves so we don't have repurchase stuff or replay previous portions of the games.
 

Ray Wonder

Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
I'm not gonna say anything about PS3 being impossible to emulate on the PS4. I'm not becoming a show piece for your necro bumbs.
 
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