Late Night Consoling

Microsoft's Peter Moore recently commented on the state of Xbox 360's backwards compatibility with Xbox titles. He said that Microsoft "under promised and over delivered" on its backwards compatibility plans, and "people aren't as worried about a game being backwards compatible." After taking flak for what may have been perceived as a cavalier attitude towards the feature, Moore has attempted to set the record straight in an interview with Microsoft's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb in Hryb's latest podcast.

Moore states that his comments were misconstrued through editing, and his full comments were not reproduced in the published interview. "What my words were, 'Nobody is concerned about backwards compat,' were misinterpreted as 'Nobody cares about backwards compat.' ...We're going to continue to get closer to our stated target of every Xbox game being back compat to the Xbox 360, and I'm hopeful we get there." He contends that the issue is not that people do not want backwards compatibility, it is that people are no longer concerned about the issue, since the breadth of game compatibility so far exceeds Microsoft's original stated promises.

Perhaps taking an opportunity for a slight jab at competitor Sony, which will likely be using a hardware solution for its PlayStation 3 backwards compatibility, Hryb noted that a software approach allows for constant updates and improvements. "That's the power of software," he said. "You can continue to update, it's not like you're throwing some old hardware into a new case."

In regards to next week's promised backwards compatibility update, Moore stated that it will add about twenty games to the system's existing list of compatible Xbox titles. Two of these will be Vicarious Visions' Xbox port of id Software's Doom 3 (also PC), and TT Games' (formerly Traveller's Tales) Xbox version of LEGO Star Wars (also PS2, GCN, GBA, PC).

Award winning independent studio Introversion, developer of Uplink (PC) and Darwinia (PC), may release its games on either Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 at some point in the future, according to Eurogamer. When asked about bringing its games to consoles, Introversion's Vicky Arundel replied, "I'm afraid I can't really give you any concrete details at the moment - suffice it is to say that we are currently discussing a number of deal negotiations with Sony and Microsoft." Presumably, the games would be delivered via Xbox Live Arcade or Sony's upcoming online service. It is unclear whether the games being considered are existing or upcoming titles.

Introversion is currently working on Defcon (PC), a title focusing on thermonuclear war.

Square Enix has officially announced the name of its upcoming Dragon Quest Monsters title for Nintendo DS via a teaser site. Entitled Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker, the game also appears to feature some kind of online play via Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service. According to translated details from GameSpot, the game will be directed by Dragon Quest creator Yuji Hori. Veteran series character designer Akira Toriyama will handle character design, and Dragon Quest composer Koichi Sugiyama will handle the score.

Pandemic Studios is currently running a Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PS3) contest, the winner of which will have his or her tattoo featured on the character Mattias in the upcoming action title. For the rules and submission form, check out the official site.

Konami today announced its cover athlete for the upcoming Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 (PS2, X360, NDS, PSP, PC). Twenty-four year old Adriano Leite Ribeiro will be taking the honors when the game ships early next year. Ribeiro is currently signed to Inter Milano through 2010, and also plays for the Brazilian national team.

GameSpot has a video interview on Kuju Entertainment's Sensible Soccer 2006 (PS2, Xbox, PC).