Xbox cross gen only - does this apply to third-parties?

[Yogi]

If all next gen xbox games also have to run on a current-gen xbox one for 1-2 years, then that is disastrous.

MS should really clarify because that would be pretty sucky news for gaming, especially for advancements with cpu and hardrive upgrades. The graphics card would be able to scale things to 4K but the games would not benefit from other huge upgrades, or really produce crazy next-gen games.

That would be a massive set back to gaming. That would be a critical hit.

Third parties would have to make a choice between making sure their game can also run on a current-gen xbox. Or, not sell games on xbox for 1-2 years into a new-gen launch. That's a terrible choice to make. It would be really bad either way.

 

[Lant_War]

No, but as always most games will be cross gen for a bit

 

[Kyoufu]

No, there will be cross-gen 3rd party games as well as next-gen exclusives.

 

[2Blackcats]

No, there will be cross-gen 3rd party games as well as next-gen exclusives.

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An assumption or do we know this?

 

[terminaljeremy]

Firstly, no. And secondly this alarmist "this is TERRIBLE for gaming" narrative conveniently ignores that this has been going on in the PC world since forever.

 

[LewieP]

Yes it would be a disaster that would destroy gaming as we know it.

Or maybe it would be exactly the same thing that happened last console transition.

In the first two years of the last gen console transition, how many successful third party games were there that dropped PS3/360 support? Assassin's Creed Unity had major technical problems, Evolve was a flop. First one was really Arkham Knight.

I imagine we'll see similar this time around.

I dunno if people just have short memories or what.

 

[Meg Cherry]

I mean, the only source of this information explicitly said first party games. And Microsoft's obviously the only one that is incentivized to really keep supporting the Xbox ONE S/X into the next generation.

Most games over the first year of the console are going to be cross-gen regardless, but there's no reason to assume Microsoft is enforcing that for anyone but themselves.

 

[Judge]

What do they have to clarify? Booty was talking about first party games being available on both. Nothing said that there can't be exclusives from third parties.

 

[Ra]

How in the world could Microsoft mandate such a thing to 3rd party publishers?

 

[Rocketz]

Games are going to be cross gen

Publishers are not giving up the user bases that have these consoles have day one. It will be a year or two.

 

[Judge]

Yes it would be a disaster that would destroy gaming as we know it.

Or maybe it would be exactly the same thing that happened last console transition.

In the first two years of the last gen console transition, how many successful third party games were there that dropped PS3/360 support? Assassin's Creed Unity had major technical problems, Evolve was a flop. First one was really Arkham Knight.

I imagine we'll see similar this time around.

I dunno if people just have short memories or what.

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Not to mention anything releasing within the first year or two, even if it's "exclusive" started out development for Xbox One and PS4 and devs transitioned the game to "next gen" during development. There's a lot of concern trolling about cross-gen holding next gen back, but we would even be seeing any "built from the ground up" next gen games until like 2022/3 the earliest.

 

[Cactuar]

Strictly up to the third party to make that call. Unlike console manufacturers (aside from Microsoft, apparantly), third parties are trying to sell games, not consoles, so I expect there to be a lot of cross gen from them to take advantage of the existing user base.

Console manufacturers want to sell games as well as consoles, which is why they push for next gen exclusives to help showcase and move their new hardware.

 

[maximumzero]

I'm confused why this is a problem all of a sudden when crossgen games have been a thing as long as I can remember.

 

[Exit Music]

Most launch games are usually bad. I'm all for getting a better experience and higher fidelity cross gen games instead of crappy launch games.

It's in a publishers best interest to make a game available to as many people as possible, so I doubt they'll mind cross gen and I'm sure MS will make it easy. That being said, I'm sure they're welcome to make third party games XSX exclusive if they want.

 

[LewieP]

How in the world could Microsoft mandate such a thing to 3rd party publishers?

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They feasibly could, much like how they didn't let anyone release Xbox One X exclusive games.

But they would have no motive to do so, and it will naturally happen for the first year or two anyway for most games.

 

[Teamocil]

I mean, the only source of this information explicitly said first party games. And Microsoft's obviously the only one that is incentivized to really keep supporting the Xbox ONE S/X into the next generation.

Most games over the first year of the console are going to be cross-gen regardless, but there's no reason to assume Microsoft is enforcing that for anyone but themselves.

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Not really. If anything, typically it's the third party pubs that are incentivized to support the previous gen when a new one starts. Usually, platform holders want as many next gen consoles purchased as possible, while pubs wanna be in as many hands as possible (which naturally includes the previous gen)

 

[poklane]

No, but it's extremely likely the vast majority of 3rd party games will be cross-gen for the first 2 years or so anyway because they're not gonna immediately abandon that huge playerbase.

 

[Judge]

Most launch games are usually bad. I'm all for getting a better experience and higher fidelity cross gen games instead of crappy launch games.

It's in a publishers best interest to make a game available to as many people as possible, so I doubt they'll mind cross gen and I'm sure MS will make it easy. That being said, I'm sure they're welcome to make third party games XSX exclusive if they want.

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Most launch games are "bad" because they started out development as a previous gen game and switched to new gen during dev. Solid AAA games take AT LEAST 3 years of dev, so you don't really see any built for new gen games until 3 years into the cycle. It's always been this way but people are really getting bent out of shape with this gen transition for some reason

 

[Meg Cherry]

Not really. If anything, typically it's the third party pubs that are incentivized to support the previous gen when a new one starts. Usually, platform holders want as many next gen consoles purchased as possible, while pubs wanna be in as many hands as possible (which naturally includes the previous gen)

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You have to imagine Microsoft is still trying to sell Game Pass subscriptions to people holding onto old-gen hardware though, which means they want a steady stream of new releases for those boxes.

 

[defaltoption]

This console generation will be no different then any other gen, this has all been blown out of proportion. There will be some cross gen games and then there won't be. Just like every gen.

 

[Kyoufu]

An assumption or do we know this?

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Starfield?

Can't imagine BG&E2 being on current gen either.

 

[Sim]

This is so weirdly pedantic. There's no reason to assume this nor does any platform holder have the power to enforce such a thing.

edit: should clarify that developers would still make the games they want to make and ignore xbox if they have to. this would be microsoft shooting themself in the foot

 

[Yogi]

How in the world could Microsoft mandate such a thing to 3rd party publishers?

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Couldn't they just say, all games on xbox have to support X1 till 20XX?

Firstly, no. And secondly this alarmist "this is TERRIBLE for gaming" narrative conveniently ignores that this has been going on in the PC world since forever.

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Are you sure?

And to the second part - that changes with a new-console gen for PC. The minimum requirements go up to match the base consoles. If the minimum requirements don't go up because it still needs to support current gen xbox-one, then this news delays next-gen for 2 years. Even more so for PC users.

Not to mention anything releasing within the first year or two, even if it's "exclusive" started out development for Xbox One and PS4 and devs transitioned the game to "next gen" during development. There's a lot of concern trolling about cross-gen holding next gen back, but we would even be seeing any "built from the ground up" next gen games until like 2022/3 the earliest.

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We're not changing architecture this time round though, they're basically PCs. If devs knew they would have ssds and an idea of specs, let's say since early 2019, they could have a games ready for launch-ish. There's a lot of motivation for how much focus they would get. It would give them 2-ish years.

UE4 made advancements in destruction and presented them in March 2019:



It runs on multiple cpu threads and would be a great addition to new games. But devs would have to choose between selling on xbox or incorporating that into their new game to a signifcant extent.

Or game features that were almost working but they just needed a bit more power, and knew it would come with next-gen.

 

[Yautja_Warrior]

Most 3rd party would be cross gen anyway but if Microsoft was telling a 3rd party (who wants to make a next gen only game) they have to make it cross gen, it could potentially push them to make it PS5 / PC only.

 

[akilshohen]

I don't see why it would be an issue when all X1 games will be BC

 

[TechnicPuppet]

Most launch games are "bad" because they started out development as a previous gen game and switched to new gen during dev. Solid AAA games take AT LEAST 3 years of dev, so you don't really see any built for new gen games until 3 years into the cycle. It's always been this way but people are really getting bent out of shape with this gen transition for some reason

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I feel like it's going to be no different from every other gen except the fact that games will be cut off from older hardware when they need to be rather than arbitrarily.

They will ask the devs where the game fits and go with what they say. This might mean some devs putting really high PC specs and SSDs. Other games would be fine on a 360.

 

[m23]

The comment by Matt Booty was only in reference to Xbox Game Studios games.

 

[crazillo]

No offense OP, but I don't see the point of this thread, quite honestly speaking.

 

[Governergrimm]

I'm confused why this is a problem all of a sudden when crossgen games have been a thing as long as I can remember.

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You know why.

 

[Secretofmateria]

I feel like most third party titles in the first two years will be cross gen regardless. as far as I know, Microsoft is only planning cross gen support for their first party titles for the first two years. I don't think its a hard and fast rule, if anything they are just doing what most third parties do between generations.

 

[Ra]

They feasibly could, much like how they didn't let anyone release Xbox One X exclusive games.

But they would have no motive to do so, and it will naturally happen for the first year or two anyway for most games.

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Couldn't they just say, all games on xbox have to support X1 till 20XX?

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Microsoft has no power to do such a thing. What are they going to say? "Support the Xbox One or we don't want it at all and you're going to have to hand that market leader Sony your games as free exclusives." Surely you jest.

Publishers hold all of the weight.

A fool can demand anything. Donald Trump could go on Twitter and say he's banning Strawberry Jam. But could he?

 

[JoJoBae]

No offense OP, but I don't see the point of this thread, quite honestly speaking.

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People drunk on marketing koolaid about revolutionary never before possible experiences worried that these experiences won't be possible because hardware that is currently out will hold things back. Or something.

SSDs aren't gonna revolutionize anything until we stop compressing games.
Ray tracing isn't going to make new concepts possible unless we all start making games with reflections used in game mechanics. Which honestly, gimme a stealth game where the AI can detect you via reflection or shadow, thanks.
I don't think I can name one new game concept or type of game that we've gotten since 2013 that we couldn't have gotten with the hardware we had.

All this said: Day one for the more of the same but prettier because I'm a whore for this shit.

 

[Godzilla24]

If all next gen xbox games also have to run on a current-gen xbox one for 1-2 years, then that is disastrous.

MS should really clarify because that would be pretty sucky news for gaming, especially for advancements with cpu and hardrive upgrades. The graphics card would be able to scale things to 4K but the games would not benefit from other huge upgrades, or really produce crazy next-gen games.

That would be a massive set back to gaming. That would be a critical hit.

Third parties would have to make a choice between making sure their game can also run on a current-gen xbox. Or, not sell games on xbox for 1-2 years into a new-gen launch. That's a terrible choice to make. It would be really bad either way.

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It doesn't apply to third parties meaning its not mandatory for them to support both althoughalmost all third parties will release cross gen games. But no outrage because it economically makes sense.

 

[Deleted member 19924]

-

 

[LewieP]

Microsoft has no power to do such a thing. What are they going to say? "Support the Xbox One or we don't want it at all and you're going to have to hand that market leader Sony your games as free exclusives." Surely you jest.

Publishers hold all of the weight.

A fool can demand anything. Donald Trump could go on Twitter and say he's banning Strawberry Jam. But could he?

Click to shrink...

I think it would be madness and they would never do it, but of course they could set their certification policies such that you have to support Xbox One and Xbox Series X. They did exactly this with Xbox One X and the original Xbox One. Microsoft policies prevent anyone releasing an Xbox One X game that does not support Xbox One.

I do not think it would ever happen, but Xbox is their platform, all games that release for Xbox have been licensed and certified by Microsoft.

It would be unwise, it's extremely unlikely they would even consider doing it, but if for some reason they decided to, they would be able to.

 

[Dogui]

MS doesn't need to clarify because it's obvious that third parties can decide this.

The Lockhart vs Series X thing could be better explained, however.

 

[Yogi]

^ I hope so.

The comment by Matt Booty was only in reference to Xbox Game Studios games.

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Matt Booty said "as our content..." then added "all our games":

"As our content comes out over the next year, two years, all of our games, sort of like PC, will play up and down that family of devices," Booty explains. "We want to make sure that if someone invests in Xbox between now and that they feel that they made a good investment and that we're committed to them with content."

Click to shrink...

 

[Deleted member 17092]

3rd parties will cater to last gen if they want to.

This isn't any different than a PC dev making their games run on lower end machines at lower resolutions for their min specs.

Can you play the game on an Xbox one? Yes. It's just gonna be 720p and 30fps.

You can also run most modern PC games at 720p 30fps on low settings even with integrated gpus that are actually weaker than an Xbox one.

I don't see the controversy.

 

[m23]

^ I hope so.



Matt Booty said "as our content..." then added "all our games":

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"Our" meaning XGS games.

 

[Yogi]

People are saying that devs wouldn't want to anyway but launch titles can be system sellers. They can get tonnes of attention.

Microsoft has no power to do such a thing. What are they going to say? "Support the Xbox One or we don't want it at all and you're going to have to hand that market leader Sony your games as free exclusives." Surely you jest.

Publishers hold all of the weight.

A fool can demand anything. Donald Trump could go on Twitter and say he's banning Strawberry Jam. But could he?

Click to shrink...

I agree, it would be a terrible idea...but what if they're really trying to sell the 'you get an investment with xbox' and get to play all new games for the time they said.
They may even encourage devs to support x1 for longer afterwards.

It would slow down next-gen all that much more.

 

[thecaseace]

^ I hope so.



Matt Booty said "as our content..." then added "all our games":

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So in this context do you think 'all our games' could mean all 'games on our platform'?

Do you think this is the case?

 

[leng jai]

They're not but what incentive would a third party have to gimp their sales potential to a tiny install base when they don't care about pushing a particular console?

 

[Bjones]

3rd parties will be mostly cross gen at the start because they are not trying to sell a new console.

 

[EvilBoris]

They feasibly could, much like how they didn't let anyone release Xbox One X exclusive games.

But they would have no motive to do so, and it will naturally happen for the first year or two anyway for most games.

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How do you know they won't let that happen now?
how do you know that anybody would want to do such a thing? The number of X's our there is so small , there is no world in which it would make any kind of business sense to do.

 

[Lkr]

I agree, it would be a terrible idea...but what if they're really trying to sell the 'you get an investment with xbox' and get to play all new games for the time they said.
They may even encourage devs to support x1 for longer afterwards.

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Again you act like this is a bad thing...
If they can make the game work at 720p (or lower) and get rid of some eye candy, what's the crime? Other folks playing PC games on lowest setting have no impact on me

 

[Iron Eddie]

People are saying that devs wouldn't want to anyway but launch titles can be system sellers. They can get tonnes of attention.



I agree, it would be a terrible idea...but what if they're really trying to sell the 'you get an investment with xbox' and get to play all new games for the time they said.
They may even encourage devs to support x1 for longer afterwards.

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This whole thing is almost laughable. We haven't even seen the new games yet to determine anything to actually be worried about and you're already thinking Microsoft will discourage developers to make next gen games. For the love of God can we just wait and see how the games are first?

 

[Yogi]

Again you act like this is a bad thing...
If they can make the game work at 720p (or lower) and get rid of some eye candy, what's the crime? Other folks playing PC games on lowest setting have no impact on me

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It means we don't get amazing new toys to play for even longer! If they keep pushing the current xbox range of systems and price them even cheaper, motivating devs to support them too, it could slow everything down!

We've been stuck here for so long already.

 

[Lkr]

It means we don't get amazing new toys to play for even longer! If they keep pushing the current xbox range of systems and price them even cheaper, motivating devs to support them too, it could slow everything down!

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This is a satire account then?

 

[hrœrekr]

My dream: buy the same disc, and play it on either One X or Series X.

 

[Yogi]

This is a satire account then?

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New toys are important and games badly need an upgrade, we've been stuck on low power CPUs for ages.