As we move closer to launch, Microsoft made some claims about the Xbox Series X’s backwards compatibility. According to Jason Ronald, partner director of program management, the new console will work with not only the entire Xbox One library, but also select titles from the Xbox 360 and original Xbox. With this iteration, backwards-compatibility will have substantial improvements over the current Xbox One X.
Next-Gen Will Play Backwards-Compatible Games Better Than Original Systems
To clarify, this does mean all games, not just sports titles. With Microsoft digging across thousands of titles for backwards compatibility, we may see the triumphant return of classic or community favorite sports games. This is of course on top all the sports games included with the entirety of the current Xbox One library. While possibly a long shot, we may be able to relive some of the best from the past like NBA Live 05, Smackdown vs Raw 2007 but with higher frame rates and better performance.
Ronald notes older games can run natively on the Xbox Series X. This means they will benefit from the “full power” of the CPU, GPU and SSD, without boost mode or down clocking. Furthermore, backwards-compatible games from all previous libraries should see reductions in load times. Other improvements, thanks to the Xbox Velocity Architecture, include:
- Quick Resume functioning on older titles to start wherever they left off
- A project “double the frame rate of a select set of titles”
We do not know exactly which titles will benefit from which enhancements. As Ronald expressed, there are a lot of moving parts. It will be interesting to see if their claims hold up after launch this holiday season.
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