Black 'not coming to 360'

By Kristan Reed Published 23 February, 2006

But Black 2 will be.

Criterion's Alex Ward has shot down speculation that an Xbox 360 version of BLACK will be made, following the news that the EA-published title (out tomorrow in Europe, 28th February in North America) will not be compatible with the new Microsoft games console.

"I keep reading all over forums that we're going to make a 360 version of BLACK, and it's just not true," Ward told Eurogamer this week.

And he gave us the first confirmation that the Guildford-based team is planning a next gen sequel when he said: "The only time you'll see [the BLACK franchise] on the Xbox 360 is when we make BLACK 2 on it in a few years."

Responding to the numerous conspiracy theories surrounding the lack of compatibility of Criterion's titles on Xbox, Ward insisted it has absolutely nothing to do with publishers or developers.

"We'd absolutely love it if our Burnout games worked on 360," said Ward, "but it's down to what Microsoft wants to do. It controls and decides what games its emulator works with. I've actually asked them four times myself for them to make it happen, but it's really not up to us.

"The fact that BLACK doesn't work on the 360 isn't us trying to make people wait for a 360 version... because that's not going to happen," he added.

For more on BLACK, check out our review.

Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (52) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Artemus #1 6 years ago

    "We'd absolutely love it if our Burnout games worked on 360," said Ward, "but it's down to what Microsoft wants to do. It controls and decides what games its emulator works with. I've actually asked them myself four times myself for them to make it happen, but it's really not up to us."

    It's pretty obvious EA deliberately didn't want Burnout to be backwards compatible with a shiny 360 'upgrade' on the horizon.

  • krudster #2 6 years ago

    Heh, all reviews should be done by glancing at a demo pod, they'd be ace.

  • Freek #3 6 years ago

    He's not contradicting himself. The Black comment was about an Xbox 360 version, the Burnout comment was about backwards compatiblity.

  • mcmonkeyplc #4 6 years ago

    Errrm I thought BLACK was a bit Generic shooter after playing it for 5 minutes but a bit more time spent on it makes it clear that its actually quite a good FPS but no Halo :)

  • Hog-lumps #5 6 years ago

    I played it for a good half hour

    You gave it a fair chance then obviously...........

  • richardiox #6 6 years ago

    Dil,


    Sorry, but there is no way you cleared a couple of levels in half an hour mate. The second level alone took me 43 minutes and that was on my third run through when I knew where I was going.

    You then go on to say after an hour you've seen all the game has to offer and yet you admit you only played it for 1/2 hour then watched for a little while longer. So how do you know that mate without seeing the whole game? Or are you talking shite again? I got to the 5th level last night and im still seeing new enemies, gameplay elements and weapons.

    If this was Black360 you'd be all over it dude.

  • Hog-lumps #7 6 years ago

    Ah c'mon, 1/2 hour is plenty long enough

    Well maybe it's just me then.........

    Personally I find it hard to form a concrete opinion of a game by playing 30mins in a shop. I find all the kids peering over your shoulder, harsh neon lights, store assistants etc. a tad distracting from the game experience.

  • Eighthours #8 6 years ago

    Who wants to open a sweepstake on whether Black 360 will be announced at E3 for release in the autumn?

  • Freek #9 6 years ago

    They aren't, like the man said, it's up to MS to decide when something is made to be BC or not. Right now Black isn't and neither are the Burnout games.
    But what he was commenting on was a new Xbox 360 version of Black, wich wasn't happening, they aren't making it.

  • yorkiebar #10 6 years ago

    bugger

    MS - GET YOUR FINGERS OUT!!

  • jiroczech #11 6 years ago

    Any chance of finding out what has happened to Black since it was shown to journos in September? Apparently the retail version is missing lots of features and is a shadow of what was seen last year.

    It's a decent game, but nothing like the genre-bender it was supposed to be. And it's way too easy.
    Edited by 1 at 23/02/06 @ 15:12

  • Hog-lumps #12 6 years ago

    there's no harsh neon lights, you can be seated properly, and there's not that many truants down where I live.

    :)

    We have all of those here in bristol!

    All I'm trying to say is if you play for more 30mins it might grow on you………..

    Also in Krudsters review, it actually mentions the first couple of levels are not the best and that people who persevere past these will be rewarded by a much better game experience later on…..

  • jiroczech #13 6 years ago

    The first two levels are among the best though. Towards the end it all goes underground and becomes very dull and generic.

  • krudster #14 6 years ago

    If you'd read the review, you'd note that I said the first two levels aren't that special. I don't blame you for feeling it's nothing amazing, but it gets a whole lot more impressive.

    It goes underground for the last third of the last (huge) level. And the last level is among the best in the game, in my experience.
    Edited by 1 at 23/02/06 @ 15:14

  • JonFE #15 6 years ago

    Actually his comments should clear things up. A developer is not like a politician who would deny something today and announce it tomorrow.

    On the other hand, if EA has anything to do with such decision, things might change (hope not).

    I'm looking forward playing OXM's demo and see what the fuss is about. However, even if I like it (which is more than likely ;) I'll probably wait a bit for the price to come down. Any game that lasts 8-10 hours should be priced accordingly.

  • richardiox #16 6 years ago

    Dil,

    Yeah but you did say with authority, "after an hour you've seen all the tricks of the game" - like this was your opinion based on your experience as opposed to some regurgitated gamespot review. Then you say you've only seen the first few levels. So again, how do YOU know this?

    As for the "pre-cut" shapes in the scenary I honestly havent seen any. Perhaps Ive been having too much fun with the game or perhaps its the sheer amount of things going on, my eyes dont have a chance for nitpicking.

    On the subject of AI, I'm surprised this has been dissed in some reviews as I thought it was actually a fairly decent considering your enemies are basically grunts who attack in droves. If the AI was too advanced it would lose the "run and gun" nature that is intrinsic to the core design. That said, last night I got outflanked by a couple of these Grunts who got fed up of waiting for me to come to them and have witnessed other signs of (semi) intelligence.

    Anyone who brought this to play against stunning AI obviously doesn't appreciate what the games' design was trying to achieve. To my eyes Ive never seen any AI actions that Ive thought of as "dubious" and havent see Enemy soldiers glitching into walls or anything like that.

    Anyway, back on topic......I just got annoyed at your comment of stating as fact and your own opinion "after an hour you've seen all the tricks of the game" when you havent even played it beyond the first levels.

    Get ready for some real dubious AI with those HL2 combine soldiers btw!

  • Stormflood_UK #17 6 years ago

    I love the way MS redefined the term 'backwards compatible'.

    Gamer - "Is this 360 backwards compatible?"
    MS - "Sure is."
    Gamer - "So I can play all my old Xbox games on it?"
    MS - "Well, no."
    Gamer - "Oh, which one's CAN I play?"
    MS - "The ones that we decide you can play. The ones which we have written emulation code for. The ones that won't possibly threaten sales of next-gen sequels in the franchise. And Barbie pony adventure."
    Gamer - "Do you know the definition of backwards compatible?"
    MS - "It's whatever we say it is buddy."

  • trevd72 #18 6 years ago

    Black is FUN FUN FUN. Isn't that why we play games? Buy it, finish it then sell it on Ebay for a £2 loss and look back with a smile a ciggy at the ride you just took. Man I love those grenades

  • krudster #19 6 years ago

    Black: the fun little run and gun that's fashionable to knock.

    EA grudges ahoy!
    Edited by 1 at 23/02/06 @ 15:36

  • Furbs #20 6 years ago

    Is that the reason for the FIFA's 2/10 on the 360? :p

    (Not that it was your review)
    Edited by 1 at 23/02/06 @ 15:39

  • Darren #21 6 years ago

    Microsoft probably don't want Black to be backwards compatible because it will show up it's own first person shooter, Perfect Dark Zero. Black might not be a big game but it's a far better and more enjoyable single player game, that is a fact!

  • jiroczech #22 6 years ago

    Yeah sorry, I didn't read the whole review as I've already read lots of impressions and previews. I did skim it though. I've finished the game once on normal and I've started playing through on hard. Bit of a romp but hugely dissapointing in comparison to my expectations.

    Regarding the levels, I thought the second level was one of the best in the game (the camp and farm sections are great) and the last level is possibly the worst - the final showdown is shite.

    One of the reasons it's dissapointing is a simple gameplay decision. A headshot is a one-hit kill on most enemies. Hit them in the body and they'll go down but then stand up again (including a brief period of invulnerability as they stand). You can empty round after round from an AK47 into them and they'll fall down, stand up, fall down and stand. One shot to the head and they're dead. Crazy.

    Krudster - does the retail version look like it has had significant cuts compared with earlier code you saw?

  • Carlo #23 6 years ago

    How is it the NEWEST console owners get the game LAST?

  • KTroopA #24 6 years ago

    Black is the new Black.

    there i said it.

  • Scientist #25 6 years ago

    "Black is the new Black."

    You were beaten to it yesterday by Rambaldi. See comment 2 on the Black review comments thread.

  • Xerx3s #26 6 years ago

    OW comman, its a pure ripoff by EA and they know it.

    "I left with a 2nd hand copy of HL2 instead..."

    Good call ^_^

    "EA grudges ahoy! "

    Hey, it isnt the world that holds a grudge against EA, its EA that hold a grudge against the world. ;p

  • SuperU123 #27 6 years ago

    @ Carlo

    "How is it the NEWEST console owners get the game LAST"

    It's a transition thing. The teams like the ones at Criterion have to learn new techniques and code for the new platforms. The way Sony are going at the monent, I'll bet they haven't even got dev kits out to developers yet.

  • tengu #28 6 years ago

    "We'd absolutely love it if our Burnout games worked on 360,"

    I'd absolutely love it if most of my old Xbox games worked on my 360, but alas, we don't always get what we want.

  • manic_mouse #29 6 years ago

    I'd like to think of the gamer that Killzone could have been with the black engine. It would have been great!

  • Carlo #30 6 years ago

    SuperU123, ignore Frod, he's just spinning everything he can find against me.

  • markypants #31 6 years ago

    May I just say that it's good to have krudsters comments on here in greater number than in the past. I like that you are sticking up for your feelings on this game.

  • dbeamish #32 6 years ago

    wonder why they'd forcably not pressure MS to make it BC on the 360 as its bound to geenrate a few more sales.

  • Pho-Zoon #33 6 years ago

    Back-Compat is tres smelly on the 360 at the mo'

  • inpHilltr8r #34 6 years ago

    Emulation of games that don't write to the metal, is relatively easy, hence Barbie Horse Adventures works. Games that do write to the metal are much harder to emulate, and require specific care and attention, which is why Halo works. Games that write to the metal, and that MS haven't written a special case for, are out of luck. It has nothing to do with what EA or Criterion want, and entirely down to how the emulation team at MS are scheduled. For Black to work well on 360, would have required Criterion to stick to the libraries, which would result in a much less impressive title on XBox.

    That XBox titles work at all on 360 is impressive, considering it's all done in software. Kudos MS (and I don't say that very often).

  • Zomoniac #35 6 years ago

    Games that write to the metal, and that MS haven't written a special case for, are out of luck. It has nothing to do with what EA or Criterion want, and entirely down to how the emulation team at MS are scheduled.

    This might be the case with Black but it is absolutely the case with Burnout. I don't believe for a second that BO can't be done. The fact is that there isn't a single game for Xbox that has a 360 sequel either available or coming soon that works. No PGR, no DOA, no Burnout, nothing. Yet interestingly, the earliest versions of FIFA and Madden work, but not the last few, despite them being fundementally the same. You can think what you want but I'm 100% certain Burnout 3 and Revenge aren't there now and won't be any time soon because EA and/or MS want to maximise sales.

  • rommy667 #36 6 years ago

    this whole xbox 1 emulaton on 360 SUCKS, at least sony did it right ALL ps1 games work on ps2 & i guess ALL ps1 & ps2 games will work on ps3.if sony can do it M$ can as well.

  • Bumbuliuz #37 6 years ago

    Not all playstation games work on the ps2

  • SeesThroughAll #38 6 years ago

    The overwhelming majority of leagacy PS games worked on the PS2 out of the box, no "emulation update" required. In the XBox - X360 front, old games that do run on the new hardware are exceptional.

  • IronGiant #39 6 years ago

    I think it's a great game, as for not meeting expectation what did you expect? All the demos showed months back was loads of destruction and realistic effects, thats exactly what you get wrapped up in a story. It's top fun, if you like FPS games where the story is secondary to the action, if i want a good story i'll play HL2 but for out and out destruction and carnage Black is the business. For a first attempt at this type of game fro Criterion i think it's on the money, in fact some of the action is exactly what i'd hoped for from Halo2.

  • tengu #40 6 years ago

    "Not all playstation games work on the ps2"

    There were only a handfull that don't as I recall, and none of them were exactly classics as I remember. All the PSone games I still have run on my PS2, that's all I want, and it's all I'd like from my 360 as well.

  • ilmaestro #41 6 years ago

    @Zomoniac - DOA3, Splinter Cell series, Ghost Recon series, Pro Evo 5 and lots of games that have/will have sequels on the 360 are supported. Lots of 2D fighters that may not have sequels on the 360 (but for the obvious forthcoming Live exception) are not supported. I don't think they had a very concrete plan after 'let's make sure Halo works'.

  • BBIAJ #42 6 years ago

    @tengu So you're saying that Metal Gear Solid isn't a classic in your opinion then, going off of your logic? Sure, it appears to run on the PStwo no problem, but have you actually played through to the end credits?

  • 3william56 #43 6 years ago

    Actually, Black 2 is the new Black.

    Hmmm... some of the shinest, most impressive current gen games not allowed on the 360? Is this because they make the current 360 native titles look not so crash hot? IT'S AN MS CONSPIRACY, I TELLS YA!!!

    Ico and Black released in the same week. How's that for gaming extremes? B*tch about the PS2 all you want, but you can't deny the breadth of the games.

  • BBIAJ #44 6 years ago

    Ico was released last week...

  • yorkiebar #45 6 years ago

    actually ICO was released years ago, but none of you bought it

  • nick_f Verified Senior Producer, Microsoft #46 6 years ago

    The reason the older versions of FIFA, etc work is probably that they tended to stick to the libraries and the newer versions are the ones that were optimized "to the metal" (and therefore much harder to emulate correctly).

    From my glance at the list I can see several games that used a fairly plain vanilla (i.e. unoptimized) version of Renderware Graphics 3.x that nobody would have expected to be BC. So presumably Renderware is supported fairly well in addition to the bog-standard XDK?

    Makes me wish I'd waited a bit longer before selling my Xbox, mind.

  • smelly #47 6 years ago

    Back-Compat is tres smelly on the 360 at the mo'

    1. how DARE you use my name in vein? :-)
    2. It's software emulation, so that's to be expected really isnt it?

  • jack_klugman #48 6 years ago

    Is Red Faction 'coming to 360'?

  • Stormflood_UK #49 6 years ago

    IIRC the PS1 games that didn't correctly adhere to the API were troublesome on PS2, so technically it was the fault of the devs, not Sony. I'm happy to be corrected if that's not the case.

  • Triggerhappytel #50 6 years ago

    Ah, c'mon, we're not gonna see a graphically-spanky update on the 360 within a few months.

    I mean, it's not like EA do this with their other games, like Burnout Revenge or Battlefield: Modern Com...

    Oh.

  • Dizzy #51 6 years ago

    Black? Should have called it "generic". If you have a PS2 this is about the only good FPS choice you have. If you have xbox or PC prepare to be bored shitless.
    8??? More like a 6.

  • Pho-Zoon #52 6 years ago

    Hmmm... 'hype train'... I'll use that.