NVIDIA earn from Xbox 360 back-compatibility

News - So that's how it works...

When Microsoft announced the specifications of the Xbox 360, most believed the technical overhaul would be the death of backwards compatibility, Redmond having switched Intel for IBM on the CPU front, NVIDIA for ATI on the graphics side. However, the company did tentatively offer compatibility with older Xbox games when fully unveiling the system - albeit in a vague manner suggesting it might be limited to particular titles. Speculation had it that this would basically mean Xbox favourites being rewritten for release on the Xbox 360, but it seems a somewhat better solution may have been found.

Despite a legal row over royalties concerning the original Xbox, and Microsoft's displeasure at the amount paid to NVIDIA (resulting in ATI's successful usurpation with the 360), it turns out Microsoft will still pay NVIDIA certainly royalties for the 360 too (a sum for every unit sold, it is believed) - in order to make emulation software mimicking NVIDIA's hardware run on ATI's. This, along with game patches that will be present on the Xbox 360 hard drive from launch day, should make the Xbox 360 backwards compatible. Not an elegant solution perhaps, but one that should make consumers lives easier, which is, after all, the most important thing.

Although it is still not clear if all titles will work on the new system, this approach does mean that patches for initially overlooked titles could be added at a later date. The Xbox 360 is expected out this November costing in the region of $300. More as we get it.