Is the future necessarily linked to the preservation of the past (you have four hours)? In the world of video games, the two are intrinsically linked, as the retrogaming and video game preservation movements are becoming increasingly important. All studios and manufacturers are faced with major challenges, starting with the question of the choice offered to players. Xbox, for example, tends to favor the 100% digital format. However, the studio is now reaffirming its commitment to its older (really older) games.
It is Sarah Bond, Xbox president and head of the ecosystem, who says she wants to tackle backwards compatibility head on. Additional resources are being put in place internally to ensure that early Xbox games continue to live on across more modern services and consoles. In an email sent to employees, the businesswoman explains:
“We have formed a new team dedicated to game preservation, which is important to all of us at Xbox and to the industry itself. We build on our strong history of backwards compatibility for our players, and we remain committed to preserving Xbox’s incredible library of games for future generations of players to enjoy.“
Backwards Compatibility: A Double-Edged Sword
This announcement is surprising in that Xbox is gradually moving away from physical format to focus on digital. Consoles without disc drives (Xbox Series S), a gaming service fully digitalized demand (Xbox Game Pass), a cloud gaming service but also a streaming stick project to completely free yourself from consoles, as well as an application for Smart TVs. Everything is done to leave the physical format aside, and all its advantages in terms of preservation with it.
Unlike boxed games, dematerialized titles tend to get lost in the wild over time. Like Nintendo and PlayStation, Xbox is gradually closing its online stores for its oldest consoles, before allowing backward compatibility on all the games in the catalog of these consoles. However, it is the most lenient ecosystem towards its old franchises. Many games are still available on Xbox Series X/S via backwards compatibility, at least for those from the Xbox 360.
For the moment, we do not know how the work of this new team dedicated to retrogaming will impact players. One thing is certain, this approach comes to relieve fans unhappy to see certain games disappear. We should know more by June, when Xbox will organize its famous annual conference.
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