The Xbox One and Xbox One X support Backward Compatibility, allowing gamers to play Xbox 360 (and soon original Xbox) releases on the latest hardware. However, it may be possible the Xbox One X is being built with ‘Forward Compatibility’ in mind, potentially allowing the console to play games built for future Microsoft platforms.
This news comes from an interview MCV had with Microsoft’s Albert Penello. Penello is the senior director of marketing for the Xbox brand.
“We care a lot about compatibility, we have a huge effort around compatibility, and that's not just backwards compatibility," Penello told MCV. "I don't know what the future holds, but I do know that we care a lot about compatibility and in this day and age people have shifted to caring more about their community and their apps, than caring about the piece of hardware that they're on, and we have just moved with that."
Penello pointed out that Microsoft was an industry leader when it came to compatibility across hardware generations, especially with regard to PCs. "Some might say that Windows is the ultimate compatibility platform,” he said. “Windows is backward compatible all the way back to the very beginning in many cases."
The idea behind making games and apps compatible with other Xbox consoles comes from mobile phones, with many users getting new machines every year or so. Getting a new phone doesn’t mean you have to start over with each upgrade. Most apps can be transferred over and often bring your saved information as well.
That said, Penello doesn’t want to adopt the same frequency of cell phone upgrades for consoles. "I'm certainly not an advocate of 'we're going to do a new console every year', but consumers are more used to this idea that they can buy devices with different performance levels, when a new generation of hardware comes out, their old stuff still works," he said.
Of course, all this is just talk until Microsoft makes an official announcement. That said, Microsoft has led the way when it comes to compatibility, while Sony and Nintendo require players to make repeat purchases if they want to enjoy previously released games on modern hardware.
So what do you think? Do you want to see future Xbox releases available to play on any Xbox console? What do you think the future of console releases will be like? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
