He pointed out that Microsoft's promise to focus on the "top selling" original Xbox titles has been, from a corporate standpoint, delivered upon. "For the most part, we've crossed off games that people want to play," he said, adding that "There's always going to be a notable exception here or there."

Penello noted that, outside of Halo 2, internal data points to low numbers of backward compatible games being played on Live, with BC updates "not being downloaded that much anymore."

While some of the more fondly remembered Xbox games, like Otogi and The Chronicles of Riddick, haven't made the list yet, Penello tells us not to hold our breath. "At this point the stuff that's left is work per title, every title now is almost a one-off. Right now we have to think, are we really going to do 300 one-off titles? I know it's not exactly the answer everyone wants to hear, but I feel like it's time."

Watch for more from our interview with Penello later.

Anyone else remember when SCEE's David Reeves said this about PAL models:

The backwards compatibility is not going to be as good as the U.S. and Japan models...far fewer PlayStation 2 (PS2) games can be played on a European PS3 compared with the Japanese and American PS3 models which play 98 percent of old games.

Here is the list of newly supported games:

• Avatar: The Last Airbender
• Breakdown
• Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
• Call of Duty 3
• Cars
• Crash Bandicoot 5: Wrath of Cortex
• Dai Senryaku VII: Modern Military Tactics
• FIFA Soccer 2007
• Full Spectrum Warrior
• Guilty Gear Isuka
• JSRF: Jet Set Radio Future
• MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf
• Mercenaries
• NASCAR 2006: Total Team Control
• NFL Fever 2004
• Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee
• Panzer Dragoon ORTA
• Phantom Dust
• Reservoir Dogs
• Return To Castle Wolfenstein
• RugbyLeague 2
• Sonic Riders
• Soul Calibur 2
• Star Wars Republic Commando
• Street Fighter Anniversary Collection
• The King of Fighters Neowave
• The King of Fighters 2002 & 2003
• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 07
• Tony Hawk's Underground
• Ultra Bust-A-Move
• Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict
• Xiaolin Showdown

Amazing. I'm shaking in disbelief. JSRF, Dai Senryaku VII, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Phantom Dust, Soul Calibur II, and Street Fighter AC represent about a quarter of my original Xbox collection. Guess it's time to JUMP IN. Michael McWhertor

Original Xbox Games Playable on Xbox 360 [Xbox.com]

Instead, the company reiterated it will focus on "innovative new applications and services" for the PS3. So says Nick Sharples from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe to 1UP.

We will test all forthcoming PS2 titles, but it would be unrealistic to expect significant increases in the number of playable PS2 titles in future firmware upgrades given the above. Whilst J&D and MGS are not listed as playable, their successors MGS3 and Jak and Daxter 2 are playable.

Oh, that's comforting. Who knew I'd be so damn pleased to own a launch version of the PS3? Now let's all cross our fingers that it doesn't break. Michael McWhertor

Sony Won't Focus on Updating 'Old' PS2 Games [1UP]

I'm not sure what's going on here. It could be that there's just not a huge difference between Wii and GameCube games so step down isn't as noticable or it could be that the console is polishing up the graphics. Whatever it is I like it. Starfox seemed to have a fresh coat of paint on it when I played it on the Wii.

The best part, I was able to open the flap on top of the console and plug in the Wavebird adapter and use the wireless controller with no problems at all. It does sort of destroy the sleek look of the console, but who cares and I can always take it out if I'm not playing a bunch of GameCube games.

Starting a GameCube game on the Wii is as simple as sliding the tiny disc into that over-sized Wii slot. Then you go to the Disc channel and select start. Easy peasy.

Things are not all wonderful in the world of GameCube on Wii. For some reason, once you get into a GameCube game you have to power down the system to get the remote to start working again. At least thats been my experience. Not a big deal, though slightly annoying. It would have been nice to jump to the Wii menu from your couch and slip back into Wii stuff. Brian Crecente