Xbox 360 backwards compatibility list set to grow again

An update to the Xbox 360's backwards compatibility system is in testing, with Microsoft hoping to add "at least a dozen titles" - a move which should reassure consumers after Peter Moore's recent assertion that "nobody is concerned" about this feature any more.

A post on the Gamerscoreblog, which is written by Microsoft staff, reveals that the team working on backwards compatibility code for the console is "in the testing phase of another update, and it should be out in the next few weeks."

"We saw the list they're testing, and it looks like they're hoping to add at least a dozen titles," the post continues.

In a widely-reported comment made at E3 last month, Microsoft's games supreme Peter Moore said that "nobody is concerned anymore about backwards compatibility," arguing that the firm had "under promised and over delivered" on that aspect of the Xbox 360 - and apparently contradicting Microsoft's earlier stated goal of having every Xbox game up and running on the 360.

Gamerscoreblog supports Moore's comments, but gives a little more background on the technical complexity of the task facing the backwards compatibility team.

"Long before the launch, we thought we might hit a few dozen titles, and we all feel pretty good about the list of well over 200 titles on the back compat list today, including many of the games that you've asked for," the blog's authors comment. "You all have heard us say the work isn't simple. Many games did unique things to take advantage of the processing power of the Xbox, and that makes it difficult to emulate, especially when we then have to make new code work with existing (and future) compatible titles."

However, it concludes on a positive note - telling gamers to "rest assured, we're not done yet."