Microsoft

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Microsoft ?thinking through? Xbox 360 emulation on Xbox One

Monday, 7th April 2014 02:31 GMT By Brenna Hillier

 

Microsoft?s Frank Savage has said the platform holder is thinking about implementing Xbox 360 emulation on Xbox One ? making your new console play your old games, in other words.

 

 

 

According to Kotaku, Savage was asked if there are any plans for an Xbox 360 emulator on Xbox One during Microsoft?s Build developer conference.

 

?There are, but we?re not done thinking them through yet, unfortunately,? he replied.

 

?It turns out to be hard to emulate the PowerPC stuff on the X86 stuff. So there?s nothing to announce, but I would love to see it myself.?

 

Microsoft has several options if it implements an emulator ? letting you use existing game discs for free; charging an import fee; giving you access to your Xbox Live Arcade library; or even just charging full price for downloadable Xbox 360 games playable on Xbox One.

 

The PS4 is not backwards-compatible with the PS3, although Sony?s PlayStation Now service will apparently provide access to PS3 games via the cloud.

 

Thanks, CVG.

 

http://www.vg247.com/2014/04/07/microsoft-thinking-through-xbox-360-emulation-on-xbox-one/

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/457603/microsoft-is-thinking-about-xbox-360-emulation-on-the-xbox-one/

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

It will probably never happen, 360 emulation would have been useful to have right now given so few games are out on the Xbox One.

By the time any such emulator is capable of playing anything at full speed the Xbox One will have a good library of games.

I must admit though i would like to be able to play my favourite 360 games on the Xbox One.

[Skiver Veteran]

Also especially since I sold all my 360 games in order to buy the XB1, I imagine quite a few people did similar things so to have to go and re-buy the games I sold for nowhere near what I bought them at just isn't going to happen.

I like the idea, just the thought of paying again for something is just never gonna happen for me.

[duddit2]

Adding a feature is never a bad thing, whether this happens or not I'm not too bothered about TBH, but others saying that because they sold their 360 games its pointless is a little shortsighted I feel, I know many people that still have 360's and haven't yet bought into next gen, not to mention that 360 games are available for next to nothing AND many would still have their collections.

 

This can only be seen as a good thing IMO.

[ditoax]

The only way I see 360 games running on the Xbox One is via a streaming service similar to Playstation Now that is coming for the PS4. Emulating a PowerPC system on an x86 system is going to be painful even for an official emulator. There are so many edge cases where developers did nasty little hacks that testing would be a nightmare if not impossible to do. 

 

An Xbox 360 as a service-type solution is going to be the best way to deliver this feature. If we see it at all. It is a shame as the 360 has some great games but realistically if they had not ever planned to offer any kind of backwards compatibility from the very beginning I can't see it happening. 

[duddit2]

I agree, and to be honest I think more is being made if this comment than needs to be, it was in a room of devs, and it was a dev saying its been looked into and would be nice and that's it.

 

They may have some very clever way of making it work locally, or it may be streaming, or it maybe hot air, who knows?

[Gunny2k9]

HARD TO EMULATE POWERPC ON X86!!!!!!!!     

 

http://pearpc.sourceforge.net/     even supports AMD64  

 

BEEN AROUND FOR YEARS!!!!!!!!! WILL RUN MAC OSX 10.2 !!!! only stopped being made when Apple ditched IBM and moved to Intel !!!!!

 

or another said approach !

 

http://softpear.sourceforge.net/

[mdtaUK]

HARD TO EMULATE POWERPC ON X86!!!!!!!!     

 

http://pearpc.sourceforge.net/     even supports AMD64  

 

BEEN AROUND FOR YEARS!!!!!!!!! WILL RUN MAC OSX 10.2 !!!! only stopped being made when Apple ditched IBM and moved to Intel !!!!!

 

or another said approach !

 

http://softpear.sourceforge.net/

The Xbox 360 does use a custom PowerPC processor, and an entire architecture which would have to be emulated at a fast enough speed to run the games.

[Gunny2k9]

mdtaUK ye i get that but why dont they just state the truth ... it can be done .. just not at the speed of using a real 360, and hence why there is not the function for it at the moment ...   to say its hard you might as well be saying it cant be done ...meaning they wont be doing it.   

 

when N64 emulators first came out Geforce 3 (2001) could not even handle Super Mario 64 ... yet now in 2012/2013/2014 a Samsung Galaxy S3 can hanlde it no problem so to see an XBONE do a 360 natively you got no hope unless its unloaded to cloud

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

The only way I see 360 games running on the Xbox One is via a streaming service similar to Playstation Now that is coming for the PS4. Emulating a PowerPC system on an x86 system is going to be painful even for an official emulator. There are so many edge cases where developers did nasty little hacks that testing would be a nightmare if not impossible to do. 

 

An Xbox 360 as a service-type solution is going to be the best way to deliver this feature. If we see it at all. It is a shame as the 360 has some great games but realistically if they had not ever planned to offer any kind of backwards compatibility from the very beginning I can't see it happening. 

 

Agreed, and the OG Xbox emulation on 360 shows how painful a process it is to support the project and updating games. It's far easier to do a streaming service, although more costly I imagine. Good excuse to stretch those 300k server muscles though :P

[Kravex]

Whatever option appears, knowing Microsoft it won't be cheap.

[Skiver Veteran]

Adding a feature is never a bad thing, whether this happens or not I'm not too bothered about TBH, but others saying that because they sold their 360 games its pointless is a little shortsighted I feel, I know many people that still have 360's and haven't yet bought into next gen, not to mention that 360 games are available for next to nothing AND many would still have their collections.

 

This can only be seen as a good thing IMO.

I'm not saying its a bad thing, I am just saying personally I wouldn't be excited about it because of the fact I had sold my games in order to pay for my XB1. I don't have vast amounts of disposable income so the thought of buying things, I at one time owned, just isn't that appealing.