Video games are a perishable form of entertainment and there is a risk that the industry's best works could disappear overnight. For such reason, preservation is very important to gamers; however, the issue has been put on the back burner for most companies.
Xbox has received harsh criticism as it has on several occasions promised to preserve the medium; however, the company is increasingly betting on a digital future that complicates things. We know that Microsoft wants to commit to the cause, so it created a special new team dedicated to preservation and backward compatibility.
Xbox will bet on preservation and backward compatibility
Thanks to a report from Windows Central, we know that Microsoft created a team that will be dedicated to everything related to preservation and backward compatibility. The company wants current Xbox games to be able to be enjoyed seamlessly in the future, regardless of hardware changes.
"We have formed a new team dedicated to game preservation, important to all of us at Xbox and the industry itself. We are building on our strong history of delivering backwards compatibility to our players, and we remain committed to bringing forward the amazing library of Xbox games for future generations of players to enjoy," stated Sarah Bond, president of Xbox.
No one doubts that Xbox has the most robust backward compatibility program in the industry. However, it stopped receiving new games in November 2021. Xbox explained that adding new titles to the program involved overcoming many technical and legal challenges.
The company hinted that the program would be revived sooner or later by the purchase of Activision Blizzard. However, for now there is no new information about its return. The report states that Microsoft is likely to share more details about its new preservation and backward compatibility initiative at the upcoming Xbox Game Showcase.
In recent months, Xbox and other companies have been criticized for betting as never before on digital format and subscription services, models that make video game preservation even more difficult.
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