Your argument doesn't make sense regardless of the example you used. The GameCube has Phantasy Star Online, with the online portion now defunct. The PS2 has Final Fantasy XI which is now defunct (alongside the 360 version). Games have multiplayer components that go defunct on all platforms, so why single out just Microsoft? In Microsoft's case they were the only ones with a unified network for online gaming with Xbox Live, compared to games on the PS2 or GC where the developers/publishers had to use their own networking solutions.
So your beef is with physical copies of games that use "Smart Delivery", which as stated by others is a mess because of publishers and not necessarily Microsoft because publishers are choosing to have the Xbox One version on the disc instead of Series X or both. Which in that case I would agree with you. Microsoft should have done what Sony did and still release two separate SKUs for the PS4 and PS5. However, either version would entitle you to both versions of the game and you are just choosing which version you would rather have on disc. Because so far every single "Smart Delivery" game I've purchased was just the Xbox One version and I've had to download like 40+ gigs to play the Series X version every time.
Forget PS2, GC and Xbox, older consoles even had online components that are now defunct. Going all the way back to Famicom, Game Boy and MegaDrive.
This.
Yes, it's a business move. They can sell old games and so can their partners without any effort at all. No, to the idea that the checks aren't necessary. Which you seem to be implying by dismissing the initiative as a smart biz move.
Yeah I was about to say, as someone who gameshares if you're not the home console you just need an internet connection and you can play whatever. Also you run out of swaps for the year, it's not permanent. I believe you get like 2-3 swaps every calendar year.
The way MS has setup the new Xbox store, unifying last gens Xbox One store with the current gen Series X/S stores, it would take nothing short of Xbox as a whole shutting down to make those discs useless. Assuming Xbox continues this trend in next generations, the Xbox store should end up more like Steam, where nothing gets taken down outside of publishers taking the game down themselves.
That's just not how the Xbox OG/360 back compat works. The data doesn't exist in any native capacity on the discs or in the console itself, as it has to be statically recompiled per game. Such as the shaders or the executable binary itself. The way game data works, this has to be considered ROM packages as well, the Xbox cannot compile its own game, the technology simply isn't designed that way.
While not technically unplayable, I have to say, I can't bring myself to play Otogi when both axes of the right analog stick are inverted. Sure, I can invert the X axis from the Xbox Accessories app, but there's no way to invert the Y axis for some reason. Stuff like this is certainly fixable, but some of these control schemes are really weird by modern standards.
I mean, these games are like the MMOs that came before them and died, no one misses those MMOs and I can't imagine someone 20 years from now looking back and thinking "Man I wish I could play Anthem now"
I believe Gunvalkyrie will forever have the wrong aspect ratio, but I guess it's also one of those odd games where it has the wrong aspect ratio even on original hardware. I still find it strange how some old youtube playthroughs and online review screenshots display it properly though
Virtually every emulator under the sun recompiles the original binaries - it's highly uncommon to run interpreted for any other reason but debugging accuracy purposes due to performance constraints.
