The Xbox boss is somewhat implicitly taking a swipe at Sony, but Phil Spencer’s point is still valid: why can’t we play more old games legally…?

We’ve heard (and written about) that the Xbox boss is interested in preserving older games and making them playable. We’ve already sampled his interview with Axios, but there’s more to talk about. According to him, there is still a problem with the games industry’s inability (or perhaps unwillingness…?) to preserve the past. “My hope (and I think I have to present it that way as of now) is as an industry we’d work on legal emulation that allowed modern hardware to run any (within reason) older executable allowing someone to play any game,” he said.

Given that he said this in the context of the 20th anniversary of Xbox (and, of course, the Xbox Series supports games going back to the original Xbox, which, unfortunately, is more than can be said for the PlayStation 5), it’s also proper timing, especially as the celebrations have seen seventy-six games added to the Xbox One and Xbox Series backwards compatibility list (and that’s why several Xbox 360 titles have been updated). Unfortunately, the Redmond-based company has also confirmed that this is the last game batch to be added to the list due to licensing, rights and technical restrictions…

So, for example, Jet Set Radio Future won’t be coming to the Xbox Series. The only way to get the game is to get an original Xbox and a game copy. For this reason, it’s no wonder that Spencer also pointed out that the games industry is very different from other entertainment sectors, where the technical barriers are lower, and older content is more readily available.

“I think we can learn from the history of how we got here through creative. I love it in music. I love it in movies and TV, and there are positive reasons for gaming to want to follow,” he said. (There are limitations in music, too: what’s only been released on vinyl and hasn’t been digitally released, whether via warez or not, is lost…), in films and TV shows, and sees positive reasons to do it in the games industry. He would like to see the games industry break down barriers and encourage others to do so. “I think in the end, if we said, ‘Hey, anybody should be able to buy any game, or own any game and continue to play,’ that seems like a great North Star for us as an industry,” Spencer concluded.

Source: Gamesindustry