"we have an obligation to support Xbox 360" - Phil Spencer

What a guy! Who said supporting your older system is a bad thing? Hardcore cows predicted MS would ditch 360 very quickly but it looks as it's here to stay (story courtesy of totalxbox):

Microsoft defends cross-gen gaming - "we have an obligation" to support Xbox 360

And we're "going to sell millions more Xbox 360s before this generation is done"

If you want to start a punch-up at a geekmeet, consider introducing the topic of games that release on both the new and out-going generations of consoles. One side of the room should leap to its feet, bellowing about how Shooter #124 has been compromised by the existence of a "gimped" version for an older platform. Everybody else should then stand on tables as one, yelling that they can't afford the new consoles and don't want to be "abandoned" by manufacturers. Now might be a good time to step out onto the patio.

Head of Xbox and notorious Twitter diplomat Phil Spencer can see both sides of the argument. "But we have millions and millions of people on 360," he protested, when the Metro proposed that recent and forthcoming cross-gen - or even, whisper it, last-gen-only - projects risk stealing away interest from the new consoles. "If you bought your Xbox 360 a year and a half ago, I think we have an obligation there." Mind your head, Phil! I think that guy at the back is holding a plastic lightsaber.

"We're going to sell millions more Xbox 360s before this generation is done and when people make a £100+ commitment to us, they're gonna come in and buy an Xbox 360, I want to make sure that there's content for them," he went on. "It's an investment in the new generation of consoles, not every game is going to go to 360, but I want to make sure the 360 has a healthy line-up of software from us and from third parties.

"And I think that's important," he concluded. "Not everyone bought an Xbox One at launch."

But what about all those third parties, ruining the fun with massively multiplatform games like Watch Dogs? Isn't it Microsoft's responsibility to lead by example? "Most of the third parties will support both generations for a couple of years, right? For a third party this is the nice part of the curve for the last generation, because you've got millions of people out there and they want to sell content that these people will buy.

"They also want to kickstart the new generation successfully, so you'll see a lot of them doing a little bit of both. For us in first party, our primary focus is Xbox One. You saw that on stage [at E3], we tried to show a breadth of content that you could buy in 2014."

According to the developers of Destiny, Xbox 360 "still has a lot of headroom" as a games machine. Here are some monstrously pretty Xbox 360 games to illustrate that.

On which side of the line do you stand? Assuming you aren't out on the patio.

See 2013, amirite

Could have used that support right before the next gen systems released.

Well, yeah, but, no. I get the why, but please let last-gen **** off ASAP.

When does it start?

Outside of Forza Horizon 2, where are the games? PS3 will still have a ton of exclusives until 2016 because of Japanese developers like Atlus, Namco etc...360 is pretty much just getting multiplats at this point.

Wish he would of said that back in 2009.

and the vita. They flat out said today they won't make any more 1st party vita games and will leave it up to indies and 3rd parties

are you refering to them not making AAA games in the future?

I guess Persona 5 doesn't exist.

Sony isn't worried about losing their gamers to another hardware company so i cant blame them for doing that.

And dont mention Psvita

It exists as a third party game which there are a ton of coming out on 360 and ps3.

It's just good guy PR. That's what any self respecting person in that position has to say after noting the 360 exclusive games aren't rolling out like they were. Where are the exclusive 360 retail games?

Actions speak louder than words.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=840044

They also said there won't be as many AAA games on PS4 due to high development cost

"We've been saying that the number of AAAs might be getting smaller because the cost of development for AAAs is getting higher," he said. "But there are so many indie games and great games coming out almost every week or every other week. We're seeing it on PS4. I hope you're seeing it as well."

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=840101

Yeah thats alot of big talk but 5 years from and we'l see if they keep their word.

Why end a system that will go on to sell 20+ million more by the time momentum completely dies down?

A 3rd party exclusive, is still an exclusive. Not to mention it's not a cross gen multiplat like say Horizon 2.

Aka not on suck box.

The PS3 will be lucky to break 95+ million at the rate it is selling now.

That's why Windows only gets 360 ports

Yeah, where was the support since MS went upwards of 65% casual with the Kinect?

X1 games will suffer then

I'm actually against this and view it as a negative. When a new console is released, I want to see all game development move to the new console. Having to support last gen hardware just makes the games end up being not as great as they could be if they just focused on the new hardware.

Hopefully one thing this cloud thing does is get rid of the need for dedicated servers from the publishers/developers end, MS is offering them dedicated servers to developers for free, and hopefully that costs isn't a promotional incentive to use it's servers but more a feature that's guaranteed through paying XBLG customers, so no matter how old a game is as that people who want to play it can play it online... wishful thinking maybe, but maybe at the very least a minimal amount from customers to pay to make their own controlled matches on the MS cloud that others can enjoy, people were willing to create their own Battlefield 3 matches through server rentals from EA I think MS could do something similar here depending on how greedy they might get down the line. I think this would be nice, and if Sony really gets Gaikai going on their end I think this will help end problems of servers shutting down and people seeing their favorite games' MP disappear. Hopefully it's just one of those things we forget ever happened, like limited draw distance and (hopefull) disc swapping.

Supported with F2Ps, third party multiplats and cross-gen racing games.

That's why there's been 0 support this year?

And last year was all indies, multiplats and one retail exclusive?

All I can say however is supporting the old system is great. But it has to be treaded carefully.

Making all your retail exclusives cross gen is never a good thing.

Actually it's been a success every single time it's done

Maybe financially but there are limits. Devs may end up gimping games to make sure they're at parity.

@Animal-Mother

I'm pretty sure the gap is large enough not just to accomodate the 360 but to accomodate the Wii too, without having an effect on the Xbox One.... Unless developers are just too lazy to bother. After all its all just graphics.

Oh, is that why Gran Turismo 6 came out on the PS4. I feel like I get an education every time I come to System Wars.

It's the only xbox system selling right now lol

and guilty gear xrd or LBP 3, GT6 that came out a few months ago, etc. lol

bubububububu I don't like the casual therefor its not support.

Sony abandons the ps3...
the reply bububuuuubbububububuubbububububub look at these 3 multiplats, oh and an exclusive released 3 months agoo.

Where is the plathoria of AAA 1st party sony exclusives?

Thanks for all the games MS.

I'm still paying debts because of all the 360 exclusives I bought in 2012-2013.

its incredible that he remembers that thing they've abandoned since 2011

@R4gn4r0k: If I had a capable PC, the joke would be even funnier.

I might re-buy a 360 though.

You really must have been dropped on your head as a child.

he's actually right..alot of cows were bragging about sony keeping support for the PS3 going with exclusives all of last gen.

What? he totally ignored Persona 5 even being mentioned. An exclusive title and a game that's going to be absolutely huge if 4 is anything to go by.

And they really did support the ps3 with nice exclusives, I remember towards the tail end when TLOU released and Microsoft had nearly nothing of value being released. Hence my original comment that this exclusive treatment would have better served them before The xbone was released, instead of designing a "next gen," game around a cross platform design structure.

I imagine just about everyone was skeptical of long term 360 support after flat out abandoning the original XBox after only four years, not to mention the tepid support it received towards the end of last gen. You'd have to be pretty naive or a "Hardcore" fanboy to not have reservations.

Spencer says the right words here, but while I like the guy this is a situation where I'm not going to pat him on the back without seeing results, given the history of the brand.

This year 360 got Fable Anniversary.

Oh no !!!! It's actually working :O

I would sell you my 360, but I still have some games left to finish. The library I have for 360 is pretty pathetic though, because I tend to buy consoles for exclusives only. Lots of great games during the first few years, after that it kind of fell flat on it's face when it came to offering exclusives.

"Lol, we don't need to pump money into exclusive. Our 360 is selling fine without them."

"Hey, why is nobody buying our Xbox One ? I don't get it"

talk is cheap, how about PROVING IT instead of abandoning it like they did back in 2011 and saying "we will support it" but then doing nothing.

Still better than your precious Phony cutting off support for GT5 which sold 10m copies.

I just think it's funny. All that big financial talk from Lems during Gen7 about how "Gaming is a business" and Company Wars is turning around to bite them. Titanfall proved that the new XBox machine cannot push big software sales, so MS is having to suck it up and go long-tail with the 360 despite them having no experience doing so.

I really wonder what this board will look like a year from now when WiiU is holding second place firmly. "But MS is teh rich companiez" is going to get awfully thin and tired, my Lemming compadres.

What do you want to play? Games or sales? I'd rather have company doing its best and having steady flow of good games - even if it doesn't sell the best - rather than support the one which sits on its laurels and has appealing games far on the horizon. If you have more enjoyment not of games themselves but of the fact that your console sells not on its gaming merits but on its brand alone, then clearly there's something wrong with you.