‘Burnout Paradise’ Xbox One Compatibility Could Be A Reality
Burnout Paradise was easily one of the best racing titles on the Xbox 360, and developer Criterion is pushing Microsoft to bring the classic, breakneck-speed racer to the Xbox One. There aren’t many games as revered as Burnout Paradise.
Criterion confirmed that it was in talks with Microsoft by way of a tweet (you know, where all the news comes from these days). You can see said tweet for yourself below.
Yes, we ARE talking to Microsoft about making XBox 360 Burnout Paradise available on XBox One via backwards-compatibility! More news soon!
— CriterionGames (@CriterionGames) July 6, 2015
Microsoft’s announcement at E3 2015 that the Xbox One would be adding backwards compatibility came as a major surprise to those in attendance and those watching at home, and Burnout Paradise was high up on gamers’ wish lists for backwards compatibility.
Criterion confirming that they’re in talks with Microsoft to bring the title to Xbox One is far from a confirmation, but it’s unlikely that Microsoft itself doesn’t see the wisdom in bringing such a beloved title to their already-struggling console.
Regardless of whether or not Burnout Paradise makes the cut, Xbox One’s backwards compatibility is shaping up to be something special — if it works. As Microsoft’s own Phil Spencer said during Giant Bomb’s day one podcast, the company is looking to make the Xbox One a “safe” choice for people looking to buy a current-gen console.
After all, a large number of gamers own an Xbox 360, and many have an extensive library. To make the backwards compatibility even more attractive, Microsoft won’t ask you to purchase your games again; if you own the title, you can play it on your Xbox One.
“Millions of people made investments in 360 content,” Spencer said (transcribed by GameSpot). “We thought the right thing to do was to make that content go forward, but we didn’t know [how difficult it would be].”
As it turns out, backwards compatibility is a difficult beast to tackle — but Microsoft found a way, and it’s a rather unconventional one. Rather than emulating each game, Microsoft will actually be emulating the Xbox 360 entirely, and many of the Xbox One features (such as Game DVR) will still work.
“The approach that we’ve taken is to actually emulate the full Xbox 360 hardware layer. So the [operating system] for the 360 is actually running when you run the game,” Spencer explained.
It remains to be seen just how well backwards compatibility ultimately works, but hopefully it works well — so we can all spend hours crashing through fences and billboards in Burnout Paradise. There’s also the racing part, but c’mon — it’s more fun to destroy things, right?
[Featured image by Criterion Games]
