Microsoft Officially Unveils the Xbox 360 -- Page 3

The Future Is Soon
There are still some unanswered questions. The biggest one is a no-brainer: does the Xbox 360 support backward compatibility?. Microsoft has been extremely quiet on the subject of backward compatibility, and that's not a great sign. We're going to go out on a limb here and quietly suggest that the Xbox 360 will not support backwards compatibility, but that's pure speculation and we could be wrong--we'll just have to wait and see how it plays out.

We'll hopefully know for sure at E3. So why wouldn't the Xbox 360 be able to play original Xbox games? Legal squabbles or time shortages could be the issue, but the biggest barrier may end up being purely technical: the differences in the proprietary rendering technology used on nVidia's Xbox graphical techniques and rival ATi's Xbox 360 graphics techniques are different enough to potentially cause problems.

From a technological standpoint, the Xbox 360 is best described as absurdly powerful. Sony and Nintendo have a bitterly long roe to hoe if they plan on one-upping this technological titan. But in the end, all the technology in the world won't save you if you don't have great games to back you up; Microsoft's biggest challenge will be roping in top-tier publishers (such as Rockstar and BioWare) and providing amazing Xbox 360-only games. It's already at a good start, considering Microsoft's recent deals to work with Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and Tetsuya Mizuguchi.

But, damn, does the Xbox 360 make an awesome first impression.

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