"Also available in black!"
Image: Stephen Brashear / Xbox

Always online. Games tied to a single console. Indie developers can't self-publish. Just when you thought Microsoft couldn't have made a bigger hash of its Xbox One announcement, along comes the company's head of interactive entertainment Don Mattrick to attack backwards compatibility — something which is dear to a great many players.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Mattrick said:

If you’re backwards compatible, you’re really backwards.

He went on to claim that only 5% of players made use of the feature on their current system, suggesting that it's not as big a selling point as many would have you believe. Backwards compatibility was included in the Xbox 360, but not all Xbox titles were playable.

Given how easy Nintendo has made it to play your existing games on the Wii, Wii U and 3DS, it's clear that the Japanese veteran sees backwards compatibility as a key factor in its hardware. But does Microsoft have a point? How often do you make use of the Wii U's ability to play Wii games? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment and voting in the poll below.

Have you made use of the Wii U's backwards compatibility yet? (579 votes)

  1. Yes82%
  2. No, but I intend to12%
  3. No, and I doubt I ever will6%
  4. I don't even know what that means1%

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[source mcvuk.com]