Not true. They bragged with BC with all generations of Xbox. This is the quote from their December presentation:
When it truth it's mostly One, the stuff that was supported by One and fraction of OG Xbox. Vague description, that makes it look much better than it really is.
that quote says it supports BC across all generations, which is true. it never says BC will ALL Xbox games from all generations. It never says, play every Xbox game ever made on the Series X when it launches.
Here are the most recent quotes from their Series X page.
"Four generations of gaming: Our commitment to compatibility means existing Xbox One games, including backward-compatible Xbox 360 and original Xbox games, look and play better than ever before. Your favorite games, including titles in Xbox Game Pass, benefit from steadier framerates, faster load times and improved resolution and visual fidelity – all with no developer work required. Your Xbox One gaming accessories also come forward with you."
"Through the revolutionary new Xbox Velocity Architecture, thousands of games on Xbox One, including Xbox 360 and original Xbox Games, will experience improvements in performance, including improved boot and load times, more stable frame rates, higher resolutions and improved quality on Xbox Series X"
Again, it never says BC with every single Xbox game from all generations. They've never promised that.
Now, it also doesn't say Series X supports all Xbox One games (minus Kinect games) at launch. Just "thousands" of Xbox One games. Therein lies the confusion, and that's the part I want clarified definitively, one way or another. Is the goal to try to get all X1 games (minus Kinect games), including all current BC 360 and OG Xbox titles, playable on the Series X? That's what I want to know.
For a moment, based on that initial twitter reply, I thought they gave a definitive answer when they said, point blank, all Xbox One games, including current 360 and OG Xbox BC titles. But then they walked that back with the corrected statement.
So, I agree, there still is an air of confusion re BC for both companies. And both need to clarify.
Still, though, what MS has said about BC on the Series X is way ahead what Sony has said so far. MS is saying "thousands" of games will be BC at launch, across 3 prior gens. Not all games, but thousands. And that covers multiple gens.
Sony initially gave the impression that only the top 100 most played/popular PS4 games would be BC at launch. They then corrected that by saying they are "testing thousands" of PS4 games over the coming months. And that the "majority" of the 4,000 PS4 will be BC. However, they haven't specifically said if that means most PS4 games will be BC at launch or if that means it will happen over time. And, this is only for one gen of games, the PS4. So far, they have given no indication of BC with PS1-PS3 gen.
So, as it stands now, MS is more definitive in their BC plans, and they are supporting multiple gens, compared to Sony.
But, both companies could stand to make clearer statements re BC and not have shifting messages. They need to be clear, at launch, exactly how many games will be BC on their consoles and when most of the current gen games (X1 and PS4) will be BC.
I suspect, in the end, the majority of current gen games (both X1 and PS4) will be BC on their respective new consoles. The question is, when exactly will that happen? At launch, or over time?
And beyond that, will Sony add BC support for PS1-PS3 games, and will MS continue to add 360 and OG Xbox games to the BC list.
