X-Box 2 backwards compatibility...

[A Black Falcon]

The latest rumor. (Remember, the X-Box 2 is supposed to have an IBM processor of the type used in Mac G5s and developers working on X-Box 2 games supposedly are doing that on said Mac G5s...)

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/09/25/...08839.html

RUMOR #5: The Xbox 2 will use Virtual PC 7 for backwards compatibility for original Xbox games.

Source: Self-explanatory site Geek.com.

The official story: Microsoft reps said they would "track down" the source of the rumor, but had not as of press time.

What we heard: According to Geek.com's Apple Insider subsection, the reason for the delay of the latest version of Virtual PC 7 is that "Microsoft has given this project exclusively to the Xbox team." Why would they do such a thing? "Because the next Xbox will include an IBM PowerPC 970, and current Xbox game developers are shipped G5 PowerMacs," says Geek.com. While not confirmed by Microsoft, it sounds like a much more plausible scenario than last week's Xbox 2-backwards-compatiblity rumor, which had a Silicon Valley startup providing universal emulator middleware for the next-gen console.

Sounds like they have realized that backwards compatibility is a big issue and that dropping it would be a horrible idea after Sony has pretty much said that PS3 will almost certainly have it. The question then is how they'd deal with the sizable technical issues (totally different hardware!). An emulator is clearly the way to go... so why not use the one that they (presumably) own?