New Xbox team is great news for backward compatibility
The preservation of video games has become a hot topic and snowballs with each passing year. As we get further away from the games that laid the groundwork for the industry as it stands now, players are growing increasingly concerned about their longevity.
In the digital marketplace era, video games existing for people to play regardless of when they came out is crucial. As the industry is so digital anyway, we owe it to the developers who created the first games we ever loved to keep their titles alive in some way.
It all comes as games are gradually delisted from online marketplaces, potentially lost to the anti-piracy gamers forever. We need dedicated teams to look after the games of yesteryear, and it looks like Xbox is in on that idea.
Xbox establishes team for game preservation
Click to enlargeXbox president Sarah Bond has revealed that the company has established a brand-new team whose role is dedicated to the past and future of video games. They'll ensure that all of the company's titles going forward will be prime for backward compatibility - no matter the console we find ourselves on.
"We have formed a new team dedicated to game preservation, important to all of us at Xbox and the industry itself," Bond says in an email to Microsoft staff, revealed by Windows Central. "We are building on our strong history of delivering backwards compatibility to our players."
Bond concludes, "We remain committed to bringing forward the amazing library of Xbox games for future generations of players to enjoy." It's great news for the future of gaming, as with a dedicated team, we have a stronger chance of being able to enjoy the games that we have now, decades into the future.
Sarah Bond reiterates hope for Activision Blizzard on Game Pass
Click to enlargeStepping away from this in the big email sent to Microsoft staff members, Bond goes on to reiterate Xbox's readiness to launch more games from the newly-acquired Activision Blizzard on Game Pass.
"We are integrating Activision Blizzard King titles into our services — we launched Diablo IV into Game Pass, and Xbox has quickly become the #1 platform for D4 players," she says, adding, "We are integrating with Battle.net, all while launching CoD: Warzone Mobile and preparing for the upcoming Hellblade II, Avowed, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle."
It's an exciting time to be an Xbox user, and it seems that this excitement has the potential to last a very long time with the launch of this new backward compatibility team. Thank goodness someone's doing something about the historical video game drop-off.
