21st Century Digital Boy

Dear Microsoft,

Why is the Xbox 360 Backwards Compatibility list full of shit? I recently bought Guilty Gear XX again because it’s listed as compatible on the EU list, yet when I try to play it on any of the multiple 360s I have access to, I am prompted to install a compatibility update, after which there’s just a message saying that “This original Xbox game is not supported”.

As it turns out, Silent Hill 2 (which I was considering buying a moment ago) is apparently in a similarly odd state:

• Silent Hill 2: Dreams²⁺⁷

² Currently the North American versions of these games are the only ones supported as backward compatible titles on Xbox 360.

⁷ Currently the EMEA/ANZ versions of these games are the only ones supported as backward compatible titles on Xbox 360.

EMEA/ANZ being “Europe, Middle East and Africa / Australia and New Zealand”. Note the decidedly unambiguous use of “only” in both and the application of both to SH2 resulting in a similarly unambiguous clusterfuck. Judging by a bit of research on the Almighty Internet, it seems that the NA version of the game is not region free and won’t run at all on European consoles, while the EMEA version will work fine except for the fact that there’s no video.

What the hell, guys?

Yours,

Outie