BLACK not coming to the 360 but BLACK 2 is!
Alright, some bad news leavened with some good news: If you had any hopes of playing BLACK, EA's new gun-crazed FPS, on the 360, developer Criterion's Alex Ward has a message for you. He told Eurogamer, "I keep reading all over forums that we're going to make a 360 version of BLACK, and it's just not true... 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."
Apparently the speculation arose from BLACK's incompatibility with the 360, though Ward explained this had nothing to do with developers or publishers, and everything to do with Microsoft. He said, "[Microsoft] 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."
This is consistent with what Microsoft has told us in the past though gaming conspiracy theorists refuse to accept it: games aren't being specifically kept from 360 compatibility for the sake of selling updated, next-gen variants. To quote, "Q: Are you intentionally trying to keep (game X) off the list because you want us to buy the 360 version? A: Nope. The team is probably working on (game X) right now, even as you read this post." See that? They're probably working on game XBLACK right now, as you're reading this post. Right guys? Guys?
See also:
Rumors squashed! MS debunks top 10 360 rumors
Xbox team talks backwards compatability
UPDATE: Mr. Ward has put up a conspiracy-theory smackdown post at the GAF forums, beginning, "Jesus, you guys are seriously paranoid! This is just an effort to set the record straight. So many of you are attacking us, as developers, for being deficient in some way regarding backward compatibility. It is simply out of our hands."
He sounds serious! Let's hope MS keeps plugging away at the back-compat system, or Alex Ward is gonna have a lot more theories to dispel. [Via Xboxic]
