The Xbox Series X may have the most confusing naming convention of all time, but that’s seemingly par for the course with the Xbox brand. What’s a lot less confusing, is what features the new console will have. That one area is the backwards compatibility functions for the new console generation. Backwards compatibility is a huge factor for many console gamers, especially given the increasing cost of entry into a new console generation. Gamers just don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars for a new console and be locked out of the potentially thousands they have spent on the previous generations. Gaming on a budget gets especially hard when backwards compatibility is not fully supported.
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer told GameSpot the Xbox Series X will be able to play all of the games currently available on the Xbox One from day one. That includes Xbox One games, but also the Xbox 360 and original Xbox titles that have been made backwards compatible over time with the Xbox One. All told, there are rumors that as many as 575 games will be made backwards compatible with the Xbox Series X from just the Xbox One libraries.
“We wanted to make sure we had that, day one, we could deliver on the compatibility promise, and so I’ve been playing quite a few [Xbox 360] games on my [Xbox Series X] and Xbox One games on the [Xbox Series X] and that’s just to ensure that we can be there day one,” Spencer told GameSpot.
No news yet though on physical Xbox and Xbox 360 titles. Although there is some good news to be had with other data. Gamers will be able to transfer your Gamerscore, friends list, and Achievements, and game saves to the Xbox Series X on launch day as well. There have been other reveals too for the new console. For one thing, the controller has some interesting new features, like full social sharing integration.
The Xbox Series X launches next year, holiday 2020.
