Xbox seems to be committed to providing backwards compatibility for all of its future hardware. In an email sent by Xbox President Sarah Bond to Microsoft employees, it was revealed that a new team has been established with the sole purpose of preserving games and making sure that they can be played on future Xbox consoles.
Windows Central reported on the email that Microsoft is also looking to deliver more AI utilization in its games for “delivering player-first, developer-first value for discovery, engagement, and creator velocity.” Of course, AI is a hot topic in any space at the moment, so we will have to see how that looks in this context before we overreact.
Focusing on the new Xbox backwards compatibility team, Bond wrote the following:
“We have formed a new team dedicated to game preservation, important to all of us at Xbox and the industry itself. We are building on our strong history of delivering backwards compatibility to our players, and we remain committed to bringing forward the amazing library of Xbox games for future generations of players to enjoy.”
Sarah Bond, Xbox President.
Game preservation is another common topic in gaming communities. This coming Monday, Nintendo is shutting down online services for the Wii U and 3DS consoles after turning off those storefronts last year. Even Xbox is shutting down access to various Xbox 360 games in July.
We will be interested to see what kind of impact this new Xbox team has on backwards compatibility in the future. Over the last decade, Xbox has definitely put the most work into letting you play your older games. If you own a game supported on the backward compatibility list, you can insert your disc and instantly play. Some games also have improvements to make them compatible with 4K resolutions and higher frame rates. You may not have access to everything that was on the original Xbox and 360, but it’s a lot more than you see on other consoles. Hopefully, this will help future consoles keep those games relevant.