The Future of the Xbox One Might Be the Xbox 360

Microsoft had its first major console victory with the Xbox 360. The original Xbox was successful enough to justify a second generation, yes, but it wasn’t until that second generation when Microsoft touched the top of the mountain. And then the Xbox One came along. And then the company knew what it was like to be Jake Gyllenhaal and Josh Brolin just trying to get home again.

Backwards compatibility might just turn out to be the magical helicopter braving the winds of Microsoft’s current hurricane. At E3 2015, an event which many perceived as a “victory” for Sony (even though, really, it’s a victory for anyone with a booth), the announcement that a native Xbox 360 emulator would hit the Xbox One by the end of the year was, by far, the most competitive one. Sony has past games available to its PS4 via the paid PS Now streaming service, a drab comparison to the free, downloaded-to-console strategy Microsoft opted for. The payoff is almost immediate.

We’re talking about a couple things that have already been confirmed and the way they’re being used: Fallout 3 and the entire Gears of War franchise. Both are beloved, both are coming to the Xbox One through backwards compatibility, and both are going to be a free download for people that buy new Xbox One games: Fallout 4 on Nov. 10 and Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on Aug. 25 (you need to pre-order Fallout 4 for Fallout 3 and play Gears of War: Ultimate Edition before the end of 2015 to get the four Gears of War games). Microsoft just announced the latter, but it’s the former that’s really interesting. Sony doesn’t have anything like that for Fallout 4 on PS4 – which is something Microsoft hasn’t really been able to say about itself for a while. Sony doesn’t have that.

Now out of Gamescom 2015 is the reveal that Games with Gold freebies on the Xbox 360, starting soon, will all be available as backwards compatible titles on the Xbox One, effectively doubling the rewards for those with only the newer console. I’m eating my shoe, from a minor rant I put up just recently about how Games with Gold seems more exploitative than Sony’s PS Plus free games. Instead, when just a couple days ago Sony had the advantageous position of offering cross-play (copies of a game on any console its on between the PS4, PS3 and PS Vita) on any freely offered title in its program, today, Microsoft’s strategy is the clearly superior, consumer-friendly option. Microsoft’s doesn’t need cross-play. They’ve made it redundant with backwards compatibility.

Also from Gamescom comes the announcement that Just Cause 3 will grant buyers a code for a backwards compatible Just Cause 2, turning that kind of perk from a novelty into a verified trend.

In fairness, backwards compatibility isn’t seeing an official release until the holiday season. Right now, only Preview Program members on the Xbox One have access to the 20 or so games currently on the program. That sounds pretty weak, but we aren’t talking about potential greatness right now. Microsoft is promising over 100 titles by the time Xbox One backwards compatibility is a reality for every owner of the console.

The Value of Games Already Done

For a moment, let’s look at last year’s Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The primary appeal of that game is the visually remastered Halo 2, while the rest of it (Halo 1: Anniversary, Halo 3 and Halo 4) were, for the most part, exactly the same games as before, multiplayer included. Well, they were exactly the same excepting the fact that the online multiplayer was completely broken for months following the release of the collection. The Halo brand wasn’t irrevocably damaged, but Microsoft’s bottom line in that quarter took a hit. Developer 343 Studios likely relieved in the fact that this wasn’t the studio’s first entry in the Halo franchise; that being the case it might have been its last. It was ugly.

In 2015 we have the Gears of War collection, with one of the four titles visually remastered and all four originals included; only its not a collection, it’s just a really, really good deal on five different pieces of software, the majority of which will require little to no quality assurance because they’ve already existed in the public for many years. That’s the real trick of Xbox One backwards compatibility. The strategy that enables this: Microsoft put a rudimentary Xbox 360 inside the Xbox One, much like Nintendo did for Wii games inside the Wii U, tearing away all barriers to access but simple permission from the publisher of any given title. Naturally, Microsoft has said they intend to put all of its first-party Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One this way.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, which hits on Aug. 25, will only cost $40. The amount of work required to make this deal a reality, compared to the pre and post-launch efforts for Halo: The Master Chief Collection, is staggeringly trite, a win/win for Xbox One owners and Microsoft itself. I played Gears of War on the Xbox One (via Preview Program access to early backwards compatibility), and everything about it works perfectly fine, including online multiplayer.

On the flip side, the PS4’s Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection will ship at $60 and, to avoid the Halo: The Master Chief Collection, will only include single-player campaigns of the three titles in the franchise. It costs as much as it does because the development process required to put them all together justifies it. The Gears of War games, as mentioned, don’t need that process. None of the backwards compatible games do. Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection even includes access to the beta for Uncharted 4, just like Gears of War: Ultimate Edition will for Gears 4. The parallels are obvious – both collections as marketing tools – but the superiority and ease of Microsoft’s approach is undeniable.

The Reality of Xbox One Backwards Compatibility

To be clear, I’m not actively rooting for Microsoft and the Xbox One. What’s happening this year is what’s happened in the multiple previous for the PS4 and Sony – a conjoining of intelligent marketing, consumer value and a borderline antagonistic competitive spirit that’s turning the tide of public perception. Turns out Microsoft’s ace in the hole is still the Xbox 360, ten years later.

But in a year or two from now, just as Microsoft reacted to Sony’s PS Plus free games, Sony will react right back to Microsoft’s backward’s compatibility. The only question is this – how much ground can Microsoft and the Xbox One make up in the meantime? This is what they have:

• More Games with Gold freebies for Xbox One owners.
• Better deals on choice multi-platform games – Fallout 4 and Just Cause 3 are infinitely more attractive with access to an entire previous game that’s a known (and very well-received) quantity.
• Renewed enticement to get Xbox 360 owners to make the jump to the Xbox One.
• The ability to market new sequels with old games – Gears 4 is just the start.

And then there’s this one final detail: Xbox One backwards compatibility is, whether it deserves it or not, exciting to the consumer. That in itself is an advantage for the console, and one that Microsoft will milk as much as it can as fast as it can. Every game added to the list (IGN has a good running one going) will pique the interest of those that own it and those that always wanted to play it. Every deal included with a new game will glare in Sony’s eyes. In an industry so rampantly fueled by antagonistic competition, putting the Xbox One in a position to regularly embarrass the PS4 is, perhaps sadly, a fast-track towards popular victory.

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One Comment

1. 

   Fred Evil

   August 11, 2015 at 6:33 pm

   Meh. It’s not FULL backwards compatibility, it’s very, VERY partial. And for those of us who are long-standing Fallout fans, giving us a free Fallout 3 is irrelevant, as we already own it.
   This is good news, but it’s very little, and it’s very late.
   Color me unimpressed.

   Reply