Phil Spencer Wants Industry to Support Legal Emulation to Make it Easier to Play Older Games - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 17 November 2021 / 2,338 Views
Microsoft's latest video game consoles, the Xbox Series X and Series S, are able to play every Xbox One, minus the Kinect titles, as well as hundreds of Xbox 360 and original Xbox games.
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer talking with Axios has called for the video game industry to support legal emulation to make it easier to play older games without the need to own older hardware.
"My hope (and I think I have to present it that way as of now) is as an industry we'd work on legal emulation that allowed modern hardware to run any (within reason) older executable allowing someone to play any game," said Spencer.
Spencer added, "I think we can learn from the history of how we got here through the creative. I love it in music. I love it in movies and TV, and there's positive reasons for gaming to want to follow."
There is work to do, but Spencer hopes the industry can get to the point where anybody can buy any game or own any game and continue to play it.
"I think in the end, if we said, 'Hey, anybody should be able to buy any game, or own any game and continue to play,' that seems like a great North Star for us as an industry."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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it can be summed up with the words "it would benefit us"
He is free to do that with his own properties - this is clearly rhetoric against Sony and Nintendo. He likely draws the line conveniently at the Xbox launch or around it. I support creators doing what they want with their creations. If Phil Spencer thinks games on older consoles should be legal to emulate, he can make that happen with his own properties; but he won’t.
Legal enforcement of copyright and trademark rights is already pitiful - and it’s heavily weighed against creators in many countries. Companies have to legally enforce their own trademark ownership or lose the rights to them. But, I think it would be a lot worse if the governments forced companies to give up ownership of their creations so that random people can just pick them up and sell them on other platforms despite having no investment in their ownership or creation.
I believe emulation is legal for any old software with expired trademarks and copyright. I support legal abandonware, if it’s not legal in some countries. But if someone creates a product or pays for the license, they own it, and have a right to be compensated.
I agree with you that his recent comments on Elder Scrolls VI came across as corporate double-speak to me, and left me scratching my heads.
And yes, trying to emulate everything forever is a very Microsoft world-view. They still provide emulation for MS-DOS under Windows 11, for goodness sake!
"He likely draws the line conveniently at the Xbox launch or around it,"
Where do you get this suggestion from, let alone the certainty with which you state it?
How is legally offering something, that everyone who wants to is already doing, hurting anyone?
Legal emulation to me is providing the ability to emulate it. But it should be for people who demonstrate that they own the disc, or cartridge, since he did specify LEGAL emulation.
At least he is right about that.
I think the industry already has. I mean many companies are using emulation to some extent. But MS is arguably doing it the best at the moment.
Sony has been the weakest at this though. They have an AMAZING back catalogue of legacy games and I want a way to play them.
Yeah, I don't get Sony. They could offer hundreds of enjoyable games between PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP and Vita emulation.
With that said, I would like to see MS using some sort of virtual machine software to bring classic Windows and DOS games to Xbox.
Yes 100% on board with this
Also MS "this is the Series S, the perfect console for emulation"
Before this, I'd rather we figure out a way to make those old CRT-designed games run without any input lag. That would be step one for me.
says the company that has to jump through the least amount of hoops to do so while having the smallest back catalogue.
I support emulation, but things like PS3 emulation can get... tricky....
Your comment about the "least amount of hoops to do so," isn't fair IMO because they've also taken on the challenge of significantly enhancing older games. They're not just emulating them, they're enhancing them with auto HDR, AA, and even adding FPS boost at the OS level. They're doing it in such a way as to make it much harder on themselves, in exchange for a better experience for the consumer. That's worth something.
As is the fact that they're the only current player that offers out of the box emulation for their 7th and 6th gen consoles if you own the disc already (ie. not selling you the game again).
Fair enough. Most of the games I really want to play are Sega Dreamcast or later, and generally look pretty darn good on modern TVs. But yes, Intellivision games (for example) blown up to a 65" display would be pretty rough. :) A shame, as I'm a big Intellivision fan. :D
Digital doesn't have all the advantages, no. But the advantages of digital speak to me more than the advantages of owning a disc.
PC company wants to support emulation.. surprise surprise.
Most games won’t work without someone running the servers, though. Unless he means really old games, in which case a rerelease is sort of up to the game owners anyway…. Many of them are long since defunct.
In any case, it’s cheaper to pick up old games (and hardware to run them on) at swap meets.
Nintendo and Sony has an incredible legacy. We need this
Why not just let me buy a simple code that allows me to use said Rom on my rig till the end of time itself (you know, like the way it currently works today, without the DRM and storefront bs).
Downvote patrol being salty today.
