New Xbox One Experience, Xbox 360 compatibility arrives 12th Nov

by Mark Tyson on 27 October 2015, 11:01

Tags: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Xbox 360

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Microsoft will begin to roll out the New Xbox One Experience (NXOE) starting from 12th November. This is a major system overhaul, based upon Windows 10, and will introduce the highly anticipated Xbox 360 games backwards compatibility feature. The news broke in the wake of a big Halo 5: Guardians launch event yesterday.

The NXOE is a significant update from Microsoft. The Xbox One has already enjoyed regular updates but this one will bring quite a lot of significant changes and new features. The core purpose of the NXOE is to make the Xbox One faster and simpler to use. Microsoft is now the underdog in the next gen console war with Sony, and with every quarterly result it seems to slip further behind in the adoption numbers. However, integrating the Xbox One more closely with Windows 10 could pay off over the coming months, especially if the claimed user friendliness and faster access to popular gaming features materialises in practice and some stalwart Xbox 360 fans change over.

A really enticing part of the NXOE for many may be the arrival of the first batch of backward compatible Xbox 360 games. Over a hundred titles will make up the first batch of old games that are earmarked for becoming playable on your shiny new Xbox One. I couldn't find a full official list but IGN has a Wiki with both confirmed and rumoured Xbox 360 titles being enabled from the get go. Microsoft promises "hundreds more to come" so you will probably see your favourite old Xbox 360 titles on the compatibility list at some point. Games publishers supporting the initiative include most of the biggest such as; 2K, Bethesda, EA, Square Enix, Ubisoft and Warner Bros.

As mentioned in the intro, yesterday was the launch date for Halo 5: Guardians, depending upon your region. It is said to be "the most dramatic Halo story to date" and offers 4-player cooperative gameplay that spans three worlds. Multiplayer modes in this sci-fi epic include; Warzone, massive 24-player battles, and Arena, pure 4-vs-4 competitive combat.

HEXUS Forums :: 12 Comments

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Posted by Corky34 - Tue 27 Oct 2015 11:11
Those 40-50 million Xbox users should help Microsoft in their bid to get 1 billion Windows 10 users by 2018.
Posted by crossy - Tue 27 Oct 2015 15:48
It's good that they extending the list of compatible XB360 titles, but they'll have to go a long way yet before I'd consider replacing one of the two household XB360s with an XBOne. (Although if there's any good trade in deals for the older console then that might pique my curiosity further). For example, no CoD games, not even CoD4:MW? Shame! :inquisiti

Other thing is that this is maybe a case of too-little, too-late - PS4 seems to have the mindset, (the pester power if you will). Just returned from a US vacation and it seems to be the case over there too. I know I wasn't the only one wondering how the XBOne launch managed to miss out on at least some compatibility with the earlier console's titles.
Posted by shaithis - Tue 27 Oct 2015 16:09
I have been surprised that either of them pulled it off TBH.

Lets not forget the general rule of thumb for emulating hardware of a different architecture…..you need 10 times the power of what you are emulating.

Obviously, you can do what UltraHLE managed all those years ago and mitigate a lot of that power requirement by making a high-level emulator but that requires all the software to adhere to standards…..I am sure many titles throw a spanner in the works with some oddball programming “tricks” that have been used….and I can only assume that due to the power available and the way that compatible titles are being added in batches, that the high-level route is the way they have gone.

Still, I can't see myself buying an XBox One any time soon. At £150 with all 3 GoWs remastered, they would get my money but I have a long wait until then! (and they have to remaster GoW 2 and 3….really disappointed to read that the UE is a remastered 1 with backwards-compatible 2 and 3 :( )
Posted by Saracen - Tue 27 Oct 2015 16:12
Corky34
Those 40-50 million Xbox users should help Microsoft in their bid to get 1 billion Windows 10 users by 2018.
40-50 million, minus 1. ;)
Posted by crossy - Tue 27 Oct 2015 17:00
shaithis
I have been surprised that either of them pulled it off TBH. Lets not forget the general rule of thumb for emulating hardware of a different architecture…..you need 10 times the power of what you are emulating.Obviously, you can do what UltraHLE managed all those years ago and mitigate a lot of that power requirement by making a high-level emulator but that requires all the software to adhere to standards…..I am sure many titles throw a spanner in the works with some oddball programming “tricks” that have been used….and I can only assume that due to the power available and the way that compatible titles are being added in batches, that the high-level route is the way they have gone.
Like you, I'm kind of surprised that when they announced that some of the ole ‘360 titles were going to be made available. Then again, it’s a very strong driver for refuseniks like me - who have large ‘360 title libraries to maybe be able to play that much loved oldie-but-goodie on their shiny new ’One.

There's also the flipside for the publishers - that titles that had more or less had their day can perhaps turn a further buck (or ten) as “classic” titles under this compat scheme.

Your point about the need for “following the rules” is a good/obvious one - problem I see is that I heard too many devs being quoted as saying that they needed to “bend” those rules to get the best out of the ‘360, which I guess means that they’re going to have problems with their 'One port.

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