Microsoft on Backwards Compatibility
Hey, look, something I can finally agree with Microsoft on: backwards compatibility! Don Mattrick told the Wall Street Journal that wanting backwards capabilities is “backward.” And I totally agree with him, for mostly the same reasons he cites. Somewhere between eight and twelve percent of users would use backwards compatibility, but the costs of implementing a system either by emulation or by putting 360 hardware in the XBOX One would drive costs of the systems up drastically. Not to mention all the man hours required to program the compatibility, the engineering costs, and the development costs to patch issues between the two different systems. It literally makes no financial sense to do something that maybe ten percent of your users would use.
Gamers: backwards compatibility was a fluke of similar architectures and laser technologies. It was never a given, sure as hell isn’t a right, and you’re just going to have to accept that if you want new consoles with more power and flexibility they’re not going to be backwards compatible. Microsoft has done a lot long with this reveal, but compatibility isn’t one of them.
