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Microsoft Has An "Advantage" With Project Scarlett, It Believes

Backwards compatibility means Scarlett will have a massive launch lineup, Matt Booty says.

By Eddie Makuch on December 13, 2019 at 8:38AM PST

52 Comments

2020 will be a big year for the Xbox brand as it hopes to turn things around from this console generation where Sony has dominated. Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty said in a new interview with GamesRadar+ that he believes Scarlett has "an advantage" thanks to one feature in particular: backward compatibility.

Microsoft has said the Xbox Scarlett--which is actually now called Xbox Series X--will have the largest launch lineup of any Xbox console ever because it will play titles from Xbox One, Xbox 360, and the original Xbox through backwards compatibility. A person who buys a regular Xbox One today can do with with the confidence of knowing their purchases will move forward should they decide to upgrade. This is is what may separate Scarlett in the next-gen race, Booty said.

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"We want--when you invest in Xbox--to know that you're bringing that legacy content library with you. It's why we think we've got an advantage with Project Scarlett, because our goal is that any game that runs on an Xbox One will run on Scarlett," Booty said. "You're not porting to a different operating system; you're not porting to a different graphics API; you're just running an Xbox game, right? So we hope that that's a big advantage in terms of our initial content library."

Xbox Series X And Xbox One News

Microsoft stopped adding more backwards-compatible titles to Xbox One in June this year. The company said it ended the new releases so the company could focus on preparing Scarlett to support four generations of Xbox games. In addition to games, Scarlett will work with regular Xbox One controllers and other peripherals you might already own.

Backwards compatibility has been one of the Xbox One's standout features that separates it from the PlayStation 4. Sony's console also offers backwards compatibility through the streaming service PlayStation Now, but players need to buy games again to play them. The PlayStation 5 will support backwards compatibility for PS4 games, and these titles will run even faster on the new hardware in some cases.

Xbox Scarlett is scheduled to release in Holiday 2020 with Halo Infinite as a launch title.

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lostn

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lostn

it didn't give them an advantage when XB1 had two gens of BC while PS4 had none.

Now that PS5 will have one gen of BC instead of none, there's even less reason to think BC will move the needle.

BC is a romantic thing. Everyone says they want it. But only the vocal minority actually uses it. It's good for optics only. It doesn't win a console war.

2 • 4 years ago

FireDrakeZ

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FireDrakeZ

@lostn: Funny Xbox head Spencer already said that he looks at the Xbox stats on their servers everyday and he says millions of gamers still play both OG Xbox and Xbox 360 everyday.

Of course, those were not enough this gen as MS were not able to match Sony's exclusives but that is not going to be problem next gen.

As I mentioned in the post MS has doubled the number of studios in their portfolio including many well respected studios so exclusives will no longer be a problem moving forward, unless of course you like jrpgs which they still haven't addressed yet in terms of first party exclusives.

Upvote • 4 years ago

Spartan_418

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@lostn: Xbox One didn't plan to have backwards compatibility from the beginning, and didn't add it until years into the generation.

"only the vocal minority actually uses it"

Doubt you have any facts or statistics to back that up.

Upvote • 4 years ago

lostn

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Edited By lostn

@Spartan_418:

Xbox One didn't plan to have backwards compatibility from the beginning, and didn't add it until years into the generation.

So why didn't it spur on some sales after they introduced it?

Doubt you have any facts or statistics to back that up.

https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/250579-everybody-always-claims-want-console-backwards-compatibility-doesnt-anybody-use

https://www.usgamer.net/articles/new-study-finds-that-gamers-dont-really-use-backwards-compatability

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/06/backward-compatible-xbox-360-games-are-less-than-2-of-xbox-one-usage-time/

https://www.cinemablend.com/games/1601280/how-many-people-actually-use-xbox-one-backward-compatibility

Just like with XB1 sales figures. If they were anything to be proud of, MS themselves would trumpet them from the rooftops. When they're quiet about it, there's a good reason for it.

3 • 4 years ago

Jinzo_111887

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@lostn: Okay, let's pretend people don't want legacy content. Was PSNow a waste of resources? What about Nintendo's Virtual Console? How about Sega's Genesis collection on Steam? Is the retro games that Nintendo includes with NSO just lipstick on glorified ransomware?

Upvote • 4 years ago

lostn

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@Jinzo_111887:

Okay, let's pretend people don't want legacy content.

I did not say that.

Was PSNow a waste of resources?

100% yes.

What about Nintendo's Virtual Console?

There's a difference between reselling old, easy to emulate games, on a store, and backwards compatibility which means inserting your old discs and having them play. People are more than willing to pay a few bucks to play old games on a console they no longer own. That's different than clamoring to play last gen games on your new gen system. I presume you still have that last gen console lying around if you still have discs for it? When most people buy a next gen console, they want to play next gen games, not games they can already play or have already played. Why not just keep your current console if that's what you want to play? It's a "nice to have" feature, but you're not going to make a console purchasing decision based on that. You're going to base your purchasing decision on what new games the new console will have.

How about Sega's Genesis collection on Steam?

This isn't backwards compatibility. This is porting an old game to a new system and has been going on for ages.

Is the retro games that Nintendo includes with NSO just lipstick on glorified ransomware?

Buying a bunch of games you no longer have the original consoles for at a cheap price is very different to asking for new hardware to be able to play current gen games. You would take it if it was free, which it will be because next gen will just be a CPU/GPU upgrade of the same architecture. But if the manufacturer had to choose between spending hundreds of millions to make current gen games playable on next gen hardware, or spending that money to produce new games, the winning console will be the one that delivers good new games. And that was the PS4.

The Switch doesn't have BC either, and it's about to lap the Xbox One.

Once again, I would like to make a distinction between BC (what MS does) and ports/remasters/VC. People want to be able to buy old games on the cheap. They don't care that is running off a disc you own.

2 • 4 years ago

Jinzo_111887

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Edited By Jinzo_111887

@lostn said:

1. There's a difference between reselling old, easy to emulate games, on a store, and backwards compatibility which means inserting your old discs and having them play. People are more than willing to pay a few bucks to play old games on a console they no longer own. That's different than clamoring to play last gen games on your new gen system. I presume you still have that last gen console lying around if you still have discs for it? When most people buy a next gen console, they want to play next gen games, not games they can already play or have already played. Why not just keep your current console if that's what you want to play? It's a "nice to have" feature, but you're not going to make a console purchasing decision based on that. You're going to base your purchasing decision on what new games the new console will have.

2. This isn't backwards compatibility. This is porting an old game to a new system and has been going on for ages.

3. Buying a bunch of games you no longer have the original consoles for at a cheap price is very different to asking for new hardware to be able to play current gen games. You would take it if it was free, which it will be because next gen will just be a CPU/GPU upgrade of the same architecture. But if the manufacturer had to choose between spending hundreds of millions to make current gen games playable on next gen hardware, or spending that money to produce new games, the winning console will be the one that delivers good new games. And that was the PS4.

4. The Switch doesn't have BC either, and it's about to lap the Xbox One.

5. Once again, I would like to make a distinction between BC (what MS does) and ports/remasters/VC. People want to be able to buy old games on the cheap. They don't care that is running off a disc you own.

1. Think it through. While they pay for the ability to play games on other systems, it seems there was still a demand for the ability to play older games. Heck, there's even been external devices for this kind of purpose. The Sega Power Base converter is an official one, but in terms of unofficial stuff, there's the Retroport for the SNES. And this is barely scratching the surface of the console clones. If copyrights on system bios and system hardware patents would expire faster, we might have seen PS2 and Gamecube consoles by now. Maybe even a PS3 console clone. With that in mind, I wouldn't rule out the importance of backwards compatibility for some people. If you're able to trade in your current system while keeping your current library, it means you have less to lose trading the console in at a place like Gamestop, which helps sales. Plus in such cases, it would offer an official alternative to buying a used official console or looking into a console clone in case something happens to your system like a disc drive failing.

2. Wrong. It's not a port. It's an example of officially licensed emulation. Emulators are programs that can play games for systems they weren't designed on. Unlike a source port such as eduke32 or gzdoom, emulators aren't as picky about a game it accepts. In theory, emulation could have been used as a form of backwards compatibility for PS1 and PS2 games on PS4 had Sony not decided to go back on what they said about the importance of backwards compatibility decades ago.

3. There's a problem with that line of thinking. It doesn't have to be built into the system. There's been a number of times this has been demonstrated with external addons that could be sold. I've already named a few, but in case you've not heard of them, then maybe you're more familiar with the Super Game Boy, Super Game Boy 2, and Game Boy Player.

4. Get back to me after it surpasses the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Wii, 3DS, and PS2. Or better yet, once it surpasses the last known number of Steam accounts, which is 1 billion. (Games for earlier versions of the Windows operating system usually work fine on newer ones, but may need a little research to fix an issue here and there.)

5. And there's multiple ways to do that as I've pointed out. Do you consider the PS4 to be such a bad console that it couldn't emulate even a PS1 when both the PS2 and PS3 were able to do it pretty well for the most part?

Upvote • 4 years ago