X-Box 2 Not On Speaking Terms with Its Younger Brother

While politically I can be called a "moderate," I am fiercely partisan when it comes to my choice of gaming systems. In the interest of full disclosure, let me say I am a fan of the Playstation and Playstation 2 and am rabidly against Microsoft's X-Box system. However, I do have some experience with X-Box, since my brother is more of an "equal opportunity player" than I am and owns one of the black and green monstrosities. He likes it quite a bit, and has pronounced it superior to the PS2 on a number of levels. Well, Microsoft is looking to get the jump on Sony the next time around by releasing the X-Box 2 (also known as X-Box Next) in 2005. (Playstation 3 is due in 2006.) However, it will not be compatible with the original X-Box in hardware or gaming software. Those of you who invested in current X-Box games will have to keep around your old consoles if you want to play Halo again.

GamesIndustry.biz has now learned that Microsoft does not plan to provide any backwards compatibility in the next-generation Xenon platform - and indeed, that senior executives at the company don't believe backwards compatibility to be an important feature for consoles....According to a source close to the project, internal Microsoft figures suggest that only 10 per cent of PlayStation 2 purchasers were interested in the console's ability to play titles developed for the original PlayStation...However, a report into the videogames industry published today by Wedbrush Morgan Securities senior vice president Michael Pachter disagrees with this conclusion - arguing that failing to provide backward compatibility could have the effect of alienating Microsoft's existing Xbox installed base.

Gotta love it. Sony's Playstation 2 was backwards compatible with the Playstation, and company executives are on record saying the PS3 will be conmpatible with the PS2. Microsoft, instead of modelling its business on Sony who came out of nowhere to put Sega's consoles out of business with the Playstation and then took over the market with the Playstation 2, is modelling itself on Nintendo - a company clinging to the fringes of gaming with stock characters like Zelda and Mario. But, as usual, Microsoft's motto is not "Where do you want to go today," but "You'll go where we tell you to, and like it!" Well, time for me to return to surfing the web on my Apple Macintosh.