Xbox One: Forget Your Xbox Live Arcade Games

Not sure how others feel about this, but what has me more annoyed than the blocking of used games or the zero support for backwards compatibility, is the idea of the not being able to transfer over my Xbox Live Arcade Games to the Xbox One.

I, like many others have invested deeply in the Xbox ecosystem over the last eight years. I've bought close to 50 Arcade games, a digital collection I'm proud of. The idea of this digital locker I've built up over time being washed away when new consoles arrive makes me sick.

Steam games of old continue to work as PC architecture evolves. My iPhone games and apps I bought back in '08 still work on my new iPhone 5 – yeah they're not retina, and don't support the new "tall display", but they work. And I guarantee they will continue to work on my iPhone 10 and beyond.

A case of Microsoft suffering from the same arrogance that landed Sony on their arse this gen, or something else – that I don't know. If anything, it's going to be entertaining seeing them weather this shitstorm.

That occurred to me as well, and kind of sucks. 5 years from now I'd sure like to Play Limbo, Splosion Man, Bionic Commando, Gunstringer and others without hauling my old 360 out of the attic.

PS4 is in the same boat. I suppose it's just an ugly reality of every console generation using such vastly different architectures from the previous version.

Yeah, thats a huge bummer. the total lack of backwards compatibility is a huge bummer for me. for both new consoles.

Luckily i didnt buy many XBLA games, only a handful. I do own darksouls and farcry 3 as games on demand. Won't be using that service anymore thats for damn sure (games on demand i mean).

It really sucks because before either console was announced, backwards compatibility was listed as a big deal to me. It just totally sucks that everyone dropped the ball on this. (well except nintendo oddly enough)

I believe there's a rule here that you're not allowed to have profanity in thread titles. Not really sure why.

And yeah. MS really needs to release a portable system that's fully backwards compatible with XBLA. I'd buy one. Might even gain some ground in Japan.

Replicating a custom GPU setup is insanely difficult, even on overpowered hardware. Console emulators for PC like Dolphin and PCSX2 require a LOT more firepower to emulate the aged PS2 and Gamecube (near 4x the GPU strength of those systems), and still can't run every game dependably. Some games glitch out, have audio/video issues, etc. My PC can run Metro 2033 on High settings, yet goes all wonky when trying to emulate MGS: Twin Snakes in all its low poly glory.

It's down to economics, and I can't imagine it's worth the time and effort on Sony or MS's part to create, test and maintain emulation programs for the huge libraries on PS3 and 360. Frankly, MS's efforts in this are on the 360 were herculean and surprising, but I'd wager a guess it didn't sell them more than a few hundred extra systems. Money gained not worth the time, effort and cost.

Woah really? That sucks. They're trying to compete with the PC's awesomeness in every way, so they should include the aspect of being able to play your games of the past console on the next console, especially digital ones you bought off the store.

Nothing feels better than owning PC games spanning over the last two decades, both physical and digital, and running them all on one machine.

Why make it backwards compatible when the re-release market proved to be extremely viable this gen?

It's understandable, but it still kinda stings. You can't even trade those games in if you wanted to get money for them. You even have to keep around your old machine, so you lose out on more cash. Oh well. PCs do it sure, but they also cost a lot more if you want to buy a powerful gaming rig. Pro and cons.

While it's slightly annoying, it doesn't bother me too much. I don't really go back to my old xbla games (or boxed games for that matter) unless they're old psone games.

woah, how are you playing 20 year old games reliably? i'd like to know, not to be an ass i'd really like to know. i get all sorts of errors and issues trying to play really old PC games.

I was really hoping backwards compatibility was a thing, especially with GTA V being out later this year it means I can't trade in my 360 when a pick up One.

Your PC and IOS games are still running on an identical platform base, just a bigger badder version of what they originated on. The new machine is a completely different instruction set, the cost of emulating PowerPC is enormous and well beyond the capabilities of the wee AMD APU that's inside the Xbox.

@korwin: Well then the next question I have is: How much are 360s at this point? Can't they just bake some of that architecture into the next gen consoles? It can't cost that much.

I really don't think you will be that bothered by not having backwards compatibility, when the new machines arrive.

If you want to play those games again (which you won't) just use the xbox 360. Or even buy another new one, which will be really cheap (in the event yours breaks down)

Digital media is the future - as is anal rape, apparently.

Anal rape.

Hyperbole is also the future.

I don't know why everybody's up in arms. You guys will buy the same Nintendo titles countless times but when someone else does it you cry foul? #mostlytrolling

Quick Q; Why would I want to buy into a closed ecosystem in which the loss of the licenses that I've previously bought from the same vendor is not a potential outcome but a prerequisite for continued patronage of the system?

That seems like a very silly proposition.

Here what I do when things like this happens:

KEEP THE PREVIOUS CONSOLE AROUND.

It's not like it's the size of a VHS player. Oh wait...

I guess but a good amount of the re releases were just HD versions. Going from HD to HD wont sell.

I wonder if they could build a virtual machine for backwards play, this system is way more powerful then a 360 so you'd think maybe a emulator for some major games would be in the works.....

I'm not so sure about that, a 1080p bundle of gears games or something like that way down the line would make sense.

Then never buy an 1, keep your 360 cause it'll be the ps2 of the next gen, miss out only on Forza 5 and a few others. Then when you're totally tired of 360, pick up OneSlim three years from now at a way lower price.

In retrospect, calling it your "one" be all multimedia device doesn't make much fucking sense if I have to keep your old thing hooked up to play my old games. Seriously, this is the biggest bummer to me and I find it baffling. I'd even be willing to pay something like an additional $50-$100 for a device with BC. I don't want to have to two devices hooked up. All the excuses for this lack of functionality is bull crap.

@carlthenimrod: This.

I'm not real upset about this but it is kind of a bummer. I have games I'd like to keep. The cost of progress I guess.

Considering the rampant hardware failure of the 360s (even the newest ones aren't perfect), I imagine it's going to be hard to keep a 360 afloat 5-10 years down the line, and by then there will be no 360 left to buy. Not only that, but Microsoft will probably have shut down the 360's XBL support by then, and then there will be XBLA games that were never ported over to PC, games that will simply cease to exist (not to mention XBLIG stuff, which is a treasure trove of lunacy.)

I feel like we're living through the early days of Film and TV and companies are setting fire to the film records for room in their warehouses. Our children will decry our generation when there are no archives of some of these games for them to look back on. It's really depressing to me.

@rebgav:

Quick RW; so what you're trying to say, with your 'look at me' I'm smarter than you super-prose... is that you would actually buy into the xbox one just as long as Microsoft kept backwards compatibility a complete mystery to its supporters.

yeah... tell you what, that there seems like a very silly proposition.

(c'mon dude.. seriously who are you trying to impress with that wordy nonsense other than yourself.. you're on a VIDEO GAME forum for christ's sake... tone it down huh, put the thesaurus away.. the only people who like supercilious (yep I used that word, go look it up) show-offs are.. welp... uhhh.. nobody, not one single person)

Do you even Dapper, brah?

And no, I said that it makes no sense to buy Xbox's digital goods if those licenses aren't persistent. Same goes for the PS4. If no effort is being made to carry the software library forward then I have no interest in supporting their attempts at digital distribution.

This ^

It is understandable and honestly I would have never expected this in the first place. However if you think Indies will now come to the new XBLA you are most likely wrong.

Xbox One won't allow indies to self-publish games

http://www.shacknews.com/article/79309/xbox-one-wont-allow-indies-to-self-publish-games

Even Nintendo does allow self publishing. Indies will really try and stay away from Microsoft this generation.