An anonymous tipster filled us in on what
Microsoft's been telling retail employees about the Xbox 360
hard drive and
backwards compatibility on one of its online training
sites recently. Read below for mostly stock questions and
answers that we've already become familiar with, but there were also a few notable quotes included for you 360
watchers out there. For instance, the hard drive will come (I'm assuming pre-installed) with "an array of content
including music tracks, skins, gamer pictures, videos, and more." In addition, even though it states that they're
focused first on the top-selling Xbox 1 titles for backwards compatibility, they are also planning to make every
original Xbox game run on Xbox 360. Whether that's realistic or not is a good question, but I, for one, would like to
see my Burnout Revenge
demo disc work on the 360 as soon as possible. Obscure
(but not imported?) game owners, rejoice!
The Hard Drive Accessory
Q: Why are you now charging for the hard drive?
A: We want to expand the Xbox experience to different audiences. By offering choice to consumers we allow consumers
the flexibility to enter the immersive, high definition world of Xbox 360 gaming and build toward the complete Xbox 360
entertainment experience. Xbox 360 Hard Drive is a 20-gigabyte detachable hard drive that allows gamers to easily
transport their saved games, downloadable content including music, downloaded trailers, levels demos and community
created content from Xbox Live Marketplace. In addition, Xbox 360 is built for the future and can evolve to expand into
new multimedia entertainment scenarios.
Q: What exactly comes on the hard drive?
A: The hard drive will include an array of content including music tracks, skins, gamer pictures, videos, and
more.
Q: Are you going to release a 40 gigabyte drive in the future?
A: We?re not announcing any larger hard drives today. That said, Xbox 360 is built for the future and can evolve to
expand into new multimedia entertainment scenarios. With all of the great downloadable content that will be available
on Xbox Live, we want to leave room for the gamers to ultimately decide.
Xbox 360 Games and Backwards Compatibility
Q: What?s the Xbox 360 games lineup?
A: We?re not announcing our games lineup yet, but we expect to have between 25-40 games at retail this calendar year.
There are 160 Xbox 360 games in development right now from leading companies like Electronic Arts, Activision,
Microsoft Game Studios, etc.
Q: Is Xbox 360 backward compatible?
A: Yes. Our plan and our goal is to make every original Xbox game run on Xbox 360. We?ve focused first, naturally, on
the top-selling titles.
Q: Do you need a hard drive for backward compatibility?
A: Yes. Xbox 360 comes standard with a 20GB hard drive which will enable gamers to play original Xbox games, and we?ll
also have a hard drive peripheral for gamers who initially choose to purchase an Xbox 360 Core System.
Q: So if I buy the Core System, I won?t have backward compatibility capabilities?
A: Core System is about choice. If all you want to do is play Xbox 360 games, sign on to Xbox Live using a memory unit
and enjoy Xbox 360?s media capabilities, then maybe the Xbox 360 Core System is the right choice for you. If you don?t
want to download lots of Xbox Live content yet and don?t want to play original Xbox games yet, buy the Xbox 360 Core
System and add the hard drive accessory when you?re ready.
Q: What do you mean by ?top-selling Xbox games?? Why can?t you make all games backward compatible?
A: There are hundreds and hundreds of Xbox games on the market. Clearly, we want to make sure that out of the gate,
the most popular games - the top sellers - are at the top of our priority list. It?s our goal to make all titles
backward compatible.
