Rumors on the Internet have 2K Games announcing that Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion will miss the Xbox 360 launch day by two weeks, giving the much anticipated title a new release date of December 5th, 2005. How reliable this information is remains to be seen; while a number of high profile game sites have reported Oblivion\'s delay, IGN Insider is now reporting that Bethesda denies any such thing. Questions about Oblivion\'s role in the Xbox 360 launch have been floating about the Internet since it failed to make Microsoft\'s previous list of confirmed same-day launch titles. Speculation that it could be released during the system\'s launch window instead, within a month or so of the actual system, is still very much valid.
This is probably more a matter of how the reporting is slanted than anything else. Bethesda does not want to be stuck with the accusation of not meeting deadline, since they\'ve refused to nail down any release date besides \"Holiday Season.\" Regardless of whether or not there is a delay, the news that matters to gamers is that a Holiday Season release means you probably won\'t be picking up a copy of Oblivion when you show up on November 22nd for your Xbox 360.
Delayed? Who cares. Available when I want it? Probably not.
Excluding sports titles, Perfect Dark Zero looks to have the strongest pre-release press showing, and is currently expected to be one of the top sellers during launch.
In the mean time, the complete list of confirmed launch titles is not the only thing the game industry is waiting for. Microsoft has announced during an interview with Microsoft\'s Marketing VP Peter Moore that they will probably to have a list of Xbox titles that will be backwards compatible with the Xbox 360 within the week. Exactly how backwards compatible the Xbox 360 is has also been the subject of much speculation. While we know that a hard drive will be required to play any Xbox titles on the Xbox 360, it remains to be seen how complete that list will be, or whether it justifies putting a hundred dollars into a hard drive over the $99 dollars it would cost you to pick up an original Xbox console.
During
his interview with GameInformer.com, Moore said that the list would be updated after going live as more games become certified for backwards compatibility.
\"(The) list (of backwards compatible games) will grow and grow and grow,\" Moore said in his interview. \"The guys continue to pound through these games and the emulation is working well. After launch, we will continue to do it. Until consumers show lack of interest, then we will move on.\"
Sadly enough, Microsoft continues to express the opinion that they own the rights to your system even after you buy it. Moore went on to say that additional backwards compatibility might be added to the system through automatic updates that, \"you may not even be aware... happens.\" In other words, it won\'t ask first. While this can be a blessing for users that don\'t want to have to worry about maintaining their system, it has the potential to piss others off.
The list of backwards compatible games is expected to be published on
http://www.xbox.com.