Xbox One backward compatibility isn’t as popular as you think

4.4
The backward compatibility program on Xbox One that allows users to play a selection of over three hundred Xbox 360 titles on their current-gen consoles was a fan favorite when it launched back in November 2015. In fact, Xbox boasted that users had spent over 9 million hours with Xbox 360 games on their Xbox Ones within the first month. But it turns out that not that many people are using it now.

According to a recent study by Ars Technica, only 1.5 percent of Xbox One users’ time is spent playing Xbox 360 backward compatible games. On top of that, the only backward compatible game that made the list of the top 100 most popular Xbox One apps was Call of Duty: Black Ops.

The analysis was done by taking a random sample of data from 930,000 active Xbox One gamertags over the course of five months. Out of 1,526 average minutes that Xbox One users were active during this sample period, only 23.9 minutes were spent playing Xbox 360 backward compatible games.

Meanwhile, 54.7 percent of user time was spent playing Xbox One games, while 16.5 percent was spent watching Netflix (or falling asleep while Netflix was still on).

This study seems to confirm that Sony global sales chief Jim Ryan’s excuse for why PlayStation 4 wasn’t getting a backward compatibility program is actually legitimate. The numbers don’t lie.

That being said, the fact that Xbox does have backward compatibility wins it some bragging rights over PlayStation 4, which Xbox has been keen to exploit in the past. It’s not that backward compatibility is a killer app that sells consoles. It’s that bragging about having backward compatibility makes PS4 players wish they had it, too, thus sowing (however tiny) the seeds of discontent within the user base.

The method of this and a related study might be a bit flawed, however, seeing as how the most popular non-game app was the “My games & apps” tab. For non-Xbox users, “My games and apps” is where you navigate in the Xbox UI to simply manage and start your games and apps. We’re not sure if an app you use to open other apps should really count in this kind of analysis.

Posted:
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: http://www.egmnow.com/all/xbox-one-backward-compatibility-isnt-as-popular-as-you-think/

Related Articles

Comments

"Xbox One backward compatibility isn’t as popular as you think" :: Login/Create an Account :: 22 comments

If you would like to post a comment please signin to your account or register for an account.

TOXICPosted:

Not to hyped about backward compatibility, but it is a nice feature to have, and a lot of people will like and enjoy this feature.

XboxPosted:

To be honest I wasent a big fan of BC. If I wanted to play those old games I would just hop on the old generation console. Especially it's not like it stops the modders when it comes to the one and the graphics ain't that much better or better at all in my opinion. I much rather just buy new videos games for my console than focus on playing old ones.

kittyderpyPosted:

Who knows, everyone's different. The people they picked could be people who don't care about it. Plus the time this was taken could have a huge impact.

xxRider702xxPosted:

Although they say that the numbers dont seem to point as BC being super popular Im sure theyre still making s decent profit on BC games/sales

YokePosted:

What?! i use this feature all the time! i also know plenty of people who use it too. I doubt the BC is on a downfall.

nastyninjaPosted:

Its fun and all but no one is going to spend hours and hours on a old game unless they literally made nothing for the new console

JayPosted:

It's not a case of spending hours on old games you've previously put 100's of hours in to. It's more of the fact the games that are good... are being returned to full price in which gamers are not willing to pay. I for one refuse to pay some of the prices for a 5 to 6GB game which is more than likely modded due to RGH/J-Tags.

lilrichard22Posted:

I have my privacy settings to where only my friends see what i'm playing. I doubt I was counted in this study, as well as those who like to appear offline.

HaloPosted:

These Xbox one games are too good. That's why

16Posted:

It is popular in popular titles. Enough said, don't release games that weren't popular in the first place.


Latest Downloads

Latest Tutorials