Microsoft sai
d on Friday that it plans to discontinue support for playing original Xbox games on its online service.
In a blog posting, Microsoft’s Marc Whitten said that after April 15, users of the Xbox Live service will no longer be able to play titles like Halo 2 that were created for the first Xbox console.
“This isn’t a decision we made lightly, but after careful consideration, it is clear this will provide the greatest benefit to the Xbox Live community,” Whitten said. “And as we look down the road, we’ll continue to evolve the service with features and experiences that harness the full power of Xbox 360. To reach our aspiration, we need to make changes to the service that are incompatible with our original Xbox v1 games.”
Whitten said Microsoft will be reaching out directly to those affected by the change.
In the note, Whitten referenced the company’s work to support the upcoming Project Natal add-on that will bring gesture and voice recognition to the Xbox 360 when it makes its debut later this year.
“We’ll share more details soon, but in the meantime I want to assure you that the best is yet to come for Xbox Live,” he said. “I believe we’ll look back on 2010 as a landmark year in gaming and home entertainment, and I couldn’t be more excited about what we have in store.”
This, my friends, is a travesty if you ask me! I have always been a bit more partial to the Xbox than the Play Station consoles for years, but things like this continue to slowly sway my judgment negatively towards Microsoft. Why would they do such a retarded thing such as discontinue support for the original games that got them where they are?? They should have built the 360 with full backwards compatibility from it’s incepion if you ask me. Sony did it, and Play Station fans loved the idea. I think after 5 years or so of being on the market that the Xbox 360 should have been completely updated with all games, not just the 350 or so they did manage to upgrade. They claim that the Xbox Live service is going to keep getting better and better, well if you ask me, the one solid way to help improve on it is to drop the price by at least 50%. Sony has offered the Play Station Live service for free for years and again, the fans love it. Not only that, but Sony still has a huge corner on the market for exclusivity rights on a ton of game titles. Yes Microsoft has Halo and other titles that have helped it along, but they need to step up by leaps and bounds if they are going to continue to compete. It’s becoming ridiculous!! All I can say, is this rumored “Project Natal” better be the best thing since sliced bread!
-Lazy Idiot-
