Xbox Phil Spencer wants official emulators (Like their backwards compatibility efforts) to be used industry-wide

[Krvavi Abadas]

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,

This is part of a full length interview Phil Spencer did for Axios. Split into it's own article. There's also a quote from Video Game History Foundation head (and former Digital Eclipse employee) Frank Cifaldi.

Emulation is the path of least resistance for re-releasing games originally written for dead platforms, there just isn't a better way that is commercially viable.

I wonder if Phil is actively considering getting the OG Xbox/360 emulator working on PC (Albeit most likely locked to Windows 11) at this point? I feel like this would be the next step for them. Since adding new games is (at best) currently on a lengthy hiatus. Just locking them to Xcloud for that platform isn't really a good idea.

It should also be important to remember that Microsoft worked out a deal with Nintendo on their preservation efforts. Allowing them to re-release old Rareware games like Banjo-Kazooie using NERD's emulators.
Despite the criticism of the emulator and slow updates, Nintendo has been doing a fairly good job of rescuing older titles that wouldn't otherwise be re-released. With their biggest example being a previously unreleased English localization of Magical Drop II.

Then there's Sony, which is uhhhh.....

 

[MondoMega]

Nintendo and Sony both have a lot of improving to do. Sony's already got their official PS1, PS2 and PSP emulators running on PS4, yet have hardly used them; no excuses!

As for Nintendo... maybe don't reference the Satellaview if you aren't going to rerelease those games.

 

[Pokemaniac]

It's a bit weird to be saying this right after stopping adding new emulated 360 and original Xbox titles. Especially when there is probably a fairly simple (if a bit inconvenient) workaround to the licensing issues MS has to deal with due to some of the choices they made (that being moving the transpiling and patching process to the user's Xbox).

I do agree with the general sentiment, though. Improvements in official emulation and backwards compatibility efforts definitely need to happen across the board. MS is pretty good but has some idiosyncrasies that are holding them back, as well as some other weird technical limits. Sony stopped even trying like a decade ago. Nintendo is complicated. On the one hand, they get a bit of a pass for old physical media due to the mess of physical formats they've used over the years, have a uniquely diverse lineup of systems to deal with, and large swaths of their back catalog was never localized, but on the other hand NERD, while generally good at what they do (N64 notwithstanding, but I assume most of the issues will probably be fixed at some point) is clearly a bit of a bottleneck, even accounting for that, Nintendo have been dragging their feet, and peripheral and communication support has been an issue. I'm particularly concerned about what's going to happen once they start getting to some of their more recent systems, because they should, in theory be able to honor every digital purchase made on or transferred to 3DS and Wii U, but I have significant doubts about whether they actually will, as well as just generally whether or not the WiiWare, DSiWare, 3DS, and Wii U (there's more to the system than just what has or probably will be ported to Switch) libraries will just fall by the wayside.

 

[Dr_Phishshoe]

Idk Phil is a good guy, but it seems everytime insee a thread about it , it follows this format.

'Phil Spencer wants [insert popular opinion]'

I mean it sounds good, but the pessimist in me always wonder if he isnt just saying it for good will

 

[JazzPotatoes]

Idk Phil is a good guy, but it seems everytime insee a thread about it , it follows this format.

'Phil Spencer wants [insert popular opinion]'

I mean it sounds good, but the pessimist in me always wonder if he isnt just saying it for good will

In fairness, Microsoft really are leading the pack on this current issue.

They've not only allowed backwards compatibility for a large number of titles, they've made it so that it you still have your OG Xbox discs, you can insert them and get a digital copy of that game on your Xbone or Series X. As someone with quite a few Xbox games on their gameshelf, that really is quite a feat.

Nintendo has quite a games available now through NSO, but they still haven't got their head around old game purchases being migrated forward to new hardware

 

[Miraj]

Idk Phil is a good guy, but it seems everytime insee a thread about it , it follows this format.

'Phil Spencer wants [insert popular opinion]'

I mean it sounds good, but the pessimist in me always wonder if he isnt just saying it for good will

I remain wary of any gaming exec, no matter how nice their personality or messaging may come across. At the end of the day Phil’s still a guy in a suit (or a blazer over a gaming t-shirt) and his goal is to make Microsoft money. There’s a lot of CEO/executive-worshipping or cult of personality stuff in the gaming sphere which doesn’t always turn out well in the end. I also find it difficult to take Phil’s statements to heart when the rest of Microsoft may have different priorities or motives, like the NFT thing for instance. He’s just one (notable) part of a trillion dollar machine, and he’s still beholden to what his own senior management wants, especially when they’re pumping so much money into his division.

 

[MisterSpo]

I mean surely part of the reason Spencer talks openly and fully on this subject is because he knows it's a positive for Xbox - communicating the strengths of his brand and doing so in a way that implicitly draws attention to the shortcomings of rival platforms is something he'll know how to do and which he'll want to do.

I mean I still think he makes a very valid point here. As console hardware becomes more powerful, and with users now tied into platforms via accounts (even Nintendo committing to this), emulation is by far and away the most sensible option to pursue as a means of allowing people to access games from previous generations. Microsoft are out in front right now when it comes to what they offer in terms of backwards compatibility.

Nintendo have their own challenges in that arena and I think @Pokemaniac makes good points there. There are issues which affect their ability to put forward a more comprehensive offering, but it also seems like NERD don't really have the resources, and NSO doesn't have the priority, to become a more comprehensive offering. And even then, NSO is only a subscription, and so the question of access and ownership still isn't resolved because the second you stop subscribing, you're locked out of Nintendo's back catalogue once again.

 

[JazzPotatoes]

My Switch account is already linked to my Wii U account via the Nintendo eShop web portal. If I had a 3DS, that could be linked also.

Functionally there's no real reason I shouldn't be able to migrate a copy of Super Metroid purchased on the Wii U VC, onto my Switch: they already have Super Metroid up and running in the NSO emulator, and the accounts are already linked and share funds between them.

They already sort of did this before by migrating Wii VC games to Wii U via system transfer. It wasn't great, as you had to pay a fee to get updated functionality, but you could at least play the games in native Wii mode.

I get that Sony are lagging even further behind on this, but it really is something Nintendo could start working on if they wanted to. They've got the infrastructure to already start linking accounts and unifying people's purchases into one system, and they've got the development know how to get emulator support on Switch for most of the games people have previously purchased.

 

[MisterSpo]

When it comes to Nintendo and accounts going forward, I think it's worth pointing out what was said in their latest briefing:

While maintaining our integrated hardware-software dedicated video game platform business at the center of our business, we also want to establish a framework through Nintendo Accounts that encourages more consumers to continue playing on Nintendo platforms over the long term.

To this end, we plan to use Nintendo Accounts as a foundation to connect the various consumer experiences of our core intergrated hardware-software entertainment across platform generations. We will continue to plan and operate value-added services that are even more fun and convenient for consumers.

While I don't expect Nintendo to offer anything as comprehensive or as convenient as what Microsoft are doing - I don't expect them, for example, to allow people to bring forward purchases from pre-Switch platforms - I think that from now on, your Nintendo Account purchases will carry forward from Switch onto whatever's next. It's becoming increasingly important to tie people into an ongoing ecosystem and the account is the way to do that.

 

[Guaraná]

where do I insert my NES cartridges on my Switch?

 

[dingbat]

My Switch account is already linked to my Wii U account via the Nintendo eShop web portal. If I had a 3DS, that could be linked also.

Functionally there's no real reason I shouldn't be able to migrate a copy of Super Metroid purchased on the Wii U VC, onto my Switch: they already have Super Metroid up and running in the NSO emulator, and the accounts are already linked and share funds between them.

They already sort of did this before by migrating Wii VC games to Wii U via system transfer. It wasn't great, as you had to pay a fee to get updated functionality, but you could at least play the games in native Wii mode.

I get that Sony are lagging even further behind on this, but it really is something Nintendo could start working on if they wanted to. They've got the infrastructure to already start linking accounts and unifying people's purchases into one system, and they've got the development know how to get emulator support on Switch for most of the games people have previously purchased.

Agreed. There's nothing different about the game behind the emulator between what you played on Wii, Wii U or Switch. If it's the improvements in emulation that we're paying for, then let us pay a small fee for the new emulator instead of rebuying (licenses to) games we own. The following is not something I see Nintendo doing, but this is part of why it'd be great if what you were sold was not just an encrypted game with an emulation wrapper but additionally (or perhaps instead) the rom itself, like the Sega Genesis Collection on PC. You can just move it to whatever new system you get or a new, more feature-rich or more accurate emulator than the one it came with. That could do a lot for making old makes more widely accessible, even those that are niche.

If games can be sold as simply roms, it wouldn't be as costly to pursue distributing a large library of those as it would be to develop or license an emulator and distribute games alongside that (let alone doing a whole port). Currently, there's a huge demand for retro console games and a lot of that money is funneled into pockets of other collectors of pre-owned copies or sketchy pirate sites, i.e. zero goes to whoever owns the license to those games. I think there is a real demand that could be met here and a way to allow games that don't make any money but aren't quite Mega Man tier to be worth a big rerelease to still be easily available and let publishers, developers, license-holders earn something off of their sales in perpetuity.

 

[MondoMega]

where do I insert my NES cartridges on my Switch?

Just gotta attach the Nintendo Classics Player to the bottom of your dock; has slots of NES, SNES, N64, GB(A) and (3)DS carts, a reader for FDS disks and a disk drive for GCN, Wii and Wii U games.

Very feasible product, I promise.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

If games can be sold as simply roms, it wouldn't be as costly to pursue distributing a large library of those as it would be to develop or license an emulator and distribute games alongside that (let alone doing a whole port). Currently, there's a huge demand for retro console games and a lot of that money is funneled into pockets of other collectors of pre-owned copies or sketchy pirate sites, i.e. zero goes to whoever owns the license to those games. I think there is a real demand that could be met here and a way to allow games that don't make any money but aren't quite Mega Man tier to be worth a big rerelease to still be easily available and let publishers, developers, license-holders earn something off of their sales in perpetuity.

I mean, Nintendo obviously disagrees and they spent a decade over 3 platforms trying to make the "selling individual ROMs on our platforms" approach work. The demand for them in the original physical formats likely isn't really primarily driven by people actually wanting to use them, but just because they're rare and old, just like how the recent old Pokémon card valuation absurdity wasn't driven by a bunch of people suddenly taking the game up again and really wanting to play with their old charizard card or whatever.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

As for Nintendo... maybe don't reference the Satellaview if you aren't going to rerelease those games.

Actually, they have re-released at least one Satellaview game.
The remake of Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem includes all of the BS Fire Emblem maps on the cart.

They certainly can do more with them, but it exists.

where do I insert my NES cartridges on my Switch?

This will definitely never happen with Nintendo themselves. But people have worked out how to manufacture NES cart readers for literal decades at this point. They're fairly easy to make.

 

[MondoMega]

Actually, they have re-released at least one Satellaview game.
The remake of Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem includes all of the BS Fire Emblem maps on the cart.

Yep, i'm aware and bring it up from time to time! It's nice that IntSys took the initative, but that's far from enough considering all the other exclusive content left burried; especially since that remake wasn't localised, meaning that content still hasn't seen an international release.

Would be nice to have it released in its original form too, especially with broadcast audio.