During E3 2015, one of the stand out moments of Microsoft’s conference was the announcement of backwards compatibility for the Xbox One. Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, even went so far to say that it is a major reason that the Xbox One was the best selling console the week of E3. However, according to Mike Ybarra, Xbox Director of Program Management, it was nearly stopped in its tracks due to technical limitations
In a recent interview with Xbox Wire, Ybarra let us behind the current on the struggles the company faced with bringing Xbox 360 games to the Xbox One. “We knew it would be an engineering challenge, and many people told us it would be impossible,” said Ybarra. “However, the team had convictions, and delivered.”
According to Ybarra, it took over 3 years to make this feature, one of the most requested by users, a reality. “The ability to play Xbox 360 titles on Xbox One has been one of the most-voted-for consumer feature requests. At a fundamental level, we believe that consumers should be able to play their content on the devices they own.”
I for one am very happy to see this feature become available to all Xbox One users by Holiday 2015 (it is currently available only to preview members). However, I am somewhat bummed that I no longer have my 360 game collection! Looks like I will be keeping my eyes open for a good deal on past 360 titles like Gears of War, Alan Wake (*Editor’s Note: A seriously underrated game), and more.
Are you excited to play your favorite Xbox 360 games again? Or are you only interested in new experiences? Let us know in the comments down below!
