Halo's Preorder Content for all & Backwards Compatibility Multi-Disc, DLC, & Kinect support

[I_Make_Big_Boom]

 

Backwards Compatibility on Xbox One has been received with praise since Microsoft dropped the bomb at E3 a week ago. Plenty of details rolled out post-E3, but a few continued to be elusive: Multi-Disc, DLC, and Kinect support... until now that is.

 

Phil Spencer sat down with Giant Bomb on their E3 Podcast not that long ago to talk about how Backwards Compatibility works, and clear confusion on some of what it can & can't support. He went on to say that multi-disc 360 games, like Wolfenstein: The New Order or Dead Space 3, are currently in development, and are being looked into. He said specifically, "We're still working on multi-disc. Lost Odyssey, and Blue Dragon are some of my favorites from the 360. There's actually work in packing a multi-disc into single that requires us to go back and look at the original package on the multiple discs and reconfigure that. There weren't allot of multi-discs on 360, but that is an issue for us." 

 

He also made a brief comment regarding Kinect: noting that 360 Kinect games will not work on Xbox One, "There's some caveats, and as always I like to be as transparent as I can be on this: Kinect games won't work from the 360, because translating between the Kinect sensors is almost impossible."

 

Lastly, Xbox Support on Twitter confirmed that disc-based & digital 360 DLC will be supported, and can be transferred to Xbox One via the Backwards Compat. system. However, the availability of the DLC depends on whether or not the Developer or Publisher approves it.

 

For example, if a company like ZeniMax were to allow it's consumers to port it's 360 DLC to the One, content such as Dawnguard from Skyrim & Mothership Zeta from Fallout 3 will be playable with no strings attached (the content still needs to be tested beforehand, like Phil Spencer said in the podcast above), and possibly all DLC from the GOTY and special editions of said games will be utilized as well. Again, this still depends on the content-holders giving the green-light.

 

 

Backwards Compatibility will be available to everyone later this year, and supposedly will launch with around 100 supported titles, and hundreds more every month. Those who are in the Xbox One Preview Program can test the system's current titles right now, like Perfect Dark Zero, Super Meat Boy, and Battleblock Theater.

 

Xbox additionally has a public vote on which games will be approved. You can go to the Xbox Feedback forums here to cast your vote on a game you would like to see on Xbox One.

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

Halo 5: Guardians has plenty of pre-order bonuses that are acquired from different retailers, such as Agent Locke's HUNTER armor from Gamestop & GAME, the Projection SMG from Amazon, and a loadout weapon & skin from Xbox Live. The incentives to buy the game from all these retailers makes the content too exclusive for any one person to get unless you want to go through a large amount of hassle. It makes the choice & lack of choice of place to preorder all the more difficult.

 

Relieving the pressure on fan's shoulders, Josh Holmes of 343 Industries made a quick response to a user on Twitter regarding availability of the preorder content. He confirmed that all preorder content can be unlocked in the base game regardless of who you bought the game from, and that the preorder itself just "- guarantees you have it out of box.".

 

So earning something like the Sentinel Battle Rifle from Gamestop will require work in-game to get, but you'll still have a guarantee of the content being unlockable.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Sources:

Xbox Support on Twitter

Xbox.com

Xbox.uservoice.com

Josh Holmes on Twitter

Giant Bomb's E3 Day 1 Podcast

Gamespot 1 & 2

Halo5Universe

 

This post has been promoted to an article

[Axilus Prime]

Good, it isn't like Halo 4's nonsensical preorder exclusives that could never be unlocked normally.

[Halo6 Follower]

Glad to see Banjo Kazooie there. I love that game. Can't wait to play it again on the One. Still have it on N64: 

 

 

Now we wait until the Xbox One can handle Nintendo 64 games  

 

 

I agree with Axilus on this one. 

 

Great article SD. Looking forward to reading more about this

[BATMAN]

Hot diggity damn, this is all good news. Happy.

[rrhuntington]

Just want to play all CoD Zombies maps ever created (Besides Exo. Screw that) on Xbox One. Dat Der Reise and Ascension tho...

Gud newz SD.

[Drizzy_Dan]

Very informative and well written. Needs more special font. 11/10 on IGN.

[Unease Peanut]

I'm glad we're not missing out on any exclusive content with Halo 5: Guardians. I'm always a bit worried when retailers announce their exclusive pre-order bonusses. And it's even worse when it's a cool piece of armor or a cool looking skin!

Good thing we're still able to unlock all this in the game.

 

Good news SD!

[Is not JL]

Blue Dragon on Xbox One!?!?!?

 

That's cray cray

[Caboose The Ace]

Seriously, Blue Dragon?

 

Are there not better games MS could make backwards compatible?

[Twinreaper]

It's not aboutwhat games are better as much as what games are eqsier and able to work with the emulation. Just as how not all Xbox 1 games were supported by the 360, the same will be true this time around.

 

One must understand the difficulty in making the game work 100% on a dedicated "created for" console, let alone the paramount bulk of work involved in getting a new console on an entirely different platform schema to work 100%.

 

Best bet, be patient and be understanding with them. They just want to give you the best bug free experience you can get.

[Fishy]

 

Seriously, Blue Dragon?

 

Are there not better games MS could make backwards compatible?

Blue Dragon is being done to test the multi-disk thoughts. They're hoping such games can be done so.

[Twinreaper]

Never heard of Blue Dragon. I'm too lazy to wiki search it. Could you explain it for me? Actually 8ts not so much laziness as it is PC problems right now. .

[Caboose The Ace]

^
 
Okay I will try to sum up some important details.
 
1 Its called Blue Dragon
2 It was supervised by the original Final fantasy creator.
3 It was developed exclusively for the 360 and came out in 2007 for most places. ( Japan got it in December 2006 )
4 This next part is an cutty and pasty extract from Wikipedia "Taking place in a fictional open-world environment, the story of Blue Dragon focuses on five friends (Shu, Jiro, Kluke, Zola, and Marumaro) as they travel across the world to confront Nene, the evil ruler of the Grand Kingdom. The game follows a traditional role-playing design, based around exploration and turn-based combat."

5 It was the first 360 title to use multiple disks ( 3 in total )

6 It has got a metacritic score of 77.7

 

 

 

Edited June 27, 2015 by Like Cabooster the Ace

[Ranger Intel]

Thanks for the info SD. Good to see these won't be like the FOTUS armour variant in halo 4, not that I had any interest in it.

[BaconShelf]

People actually cared about Kinect games?

 

That's news to me. Either way, I'm glad the pre-order BS is just early-access and that my Skyrim/ Fallout 3/ New Vegas DLC discs will work fine- I imagine that, considering Fallout 3 comes with Fallout 4 on XB1, we'll certainly be getting that as a launch title.

 

Though it's also good news about Mass Effect 2+3's status, being dual-disc and all.

 

 

You had to pick the worst Fallout 3 DLC as an example, didn't you? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

Thanks for the info SD. Good to see these won't be like the FOTUS armour variant in halo 4, not that I had any interest in it.

 

That was console-exclusive, not pre-order exclusive. And thankfully non-canon.

[Axilus Prime]

People actually cared about Kinect games?

 

That's news to me. Either way, I'm glad the pre-order BS is just early-access and that my Skyrim/ Fallout 3/ New Vegas DLC discs will work fine- I imagine that, considering Fallout 3 comes with Fallout 4 on XB1, we'll certainly be getting that as a launch title.

 

Though it's also good news about Mass Effect 2+3's status, being dual-disc and all.

 

 

You had to pick the worst Fallout 3 DLC as an example, didn't you? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

 

That was console-exclusive, not pre-order exclusive. And thankfully non-canon.

I'm curious, how did you find out Fotus was non-canon? I completely see why, but where'd you confirm it?

[Fishy]

People actually cared about Kinect games?

I do, you won't believe how many I bought/Installed just to use it.

 

I have:

 

Just Dance 2014

Just Dance 2015

Q

Kinect Sports Rivals

Voice Commander, a Microsoft Garage project

Xbox Fitness

 

I already plan on getting Just Dance 2016 on October 20th.

[BaconShelf]

 

I'm curious, how did you find out Fotus was non-canon? I completely see why, but where'd you confirm it?

 

Halo 4 Essential Visual Guide

 

Manufacturer: 343 industries

Description: FOTUS was designed to allow a special spartan to transport coffee to 343i, with the horned helmet serving to ward off potential threats like bears.

 

Yeah.

[Frankenzer]

Halo 4 Essential Visual Guide

 

Manufacturer: 343 industries

Description: FOTUS was designed to allow a special spartan to transport coffee to 343i, with the horned helmet serving to ward off potential threats like bears.

 

Yeah.

lolz I was reading the Halo 4 Essential Guide during midnight and I stumbled across the fotus page. I laughed so loud, I almost woke everyone up. 

[Axilus Prime]

Halo 4 Essential Visual Guide

 

Manufacturer: 343 industries

Description: FOTUS was designed to allow a special spartan to transport coffee to 343i, with the horned helmet serving to ward off potential threats like bears.

 

Yeah.

Oh. So that's why.