E3 2015: Xbox One backwards compatibility explained

For years, there's been a hesitation to trade in previous generation consoles, since the next generation would not support backwards compatibility. The folks at Microsoft have heard the outcry from fans, so the company began looking into how to make this idea possible, a tall task given that the Xbox One and Xbox 360 are essentially built on different architecture. Now it appears that a breakthrough is at hand, with Microsoft announcing on Monday that a future Xbox One update will enable backwards compatibility with most Xbox 360 games. Shacknews endeavored to find out how this process would work.

As some may have surmised, the solution is in software emulation. The Xbox One will get the ability to emulate any Xbox 360 software and run it with the Xbox One hardware. In order to do so, users will need to jump online to download the necessary packaging pieces and essentially run through an installation process. Think of it as a mandatory install, just as with any other Xbox One game, so users will want to retain hard drive space.

The install process will allow Xbox 360 discs to be usable on Xbox One. As for digital games, those will sync to the user's library automatically, where they can simply be downloaded and installed. Theoretically, all Xbox 360 games are capable of working on Xbox One, but individual game support will ultimately depend on a title's publisher.

While this may sound like something of a cumbersome process, software emulation has its advantages. The biggest one of which is that it completely opens the door for Xbox 360 games to utilize certain Xbox One features. Features like snap, in-game screenshots, taking game clips, and sharing are fully supported for Xbox 360 games. The Xbox One button will function for Xbox 360 games as it would anywhere else, returning players to the home screen. Certain Xbox 360 functions will also be retained, most notably the Xbox Guide, which can be accessed by holding down the View and Menu buttons. In fact, players using an Xbox 360 game on Xbox One will be able to play online with friends using that same game on their Xbox 360.

The last thing to note is that this is backwards compatibility for software only. So while a game like Rock Band 3 or Guitar Hero World Tour would certainly be playable on an Xbox One, the instruments will not be supported. Sorry, music game fans.

Microsoft is aiming for the holiday season to deploy the backwards compatability update, but members of the Xbox One Preview program can take advantage of this feature right now.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?