A new update on Microsoft’s backwards compatibility plans for the Xbox Series X and Series S was shared this week that’s great news for anyone who’s planning on getting the consoles and doesn’t want to leave their Xbox One games behind. The word on the backwards compatible capability was previously that the consoles would be compatible with “thousands” of different Xbox games at launch which would already keep people busy for a while, but things have gotten better. It’s now been confirmed that the consoles will support backwards compatibility for every single Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One game that’s currently playable on the Xbox One with the exception of a few that require Kinect to play.
Jason Ronald from the Xbox team shared the latest on the backwards compatibility plans for the two next-gen consoles this week. Ronald said that Microsoft had put over 500,000 hours of testing into the backwards compatibility component of the Xbox Series X and Series S to ensure this expansive collection of games would be playable.
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After 500K+ hours of testing, we’re are excited to share that all Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One games playable on Xbox One today, except for the handful that require Kinect, will be available – and look and play better – on Xbox Series X|S at launch.
— Jason Ronald (@jronald) October 28, 2020
The wording of the tweet is important here since it doesn’t mean that every single Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One game will be playable on the new consoles. What it means is that if you can get on your Xbox One right now and play a game, you’ll be able to play that game on the new consoles. Games that aren’t currently part of the Xbox One’s backwards compatibility program still won’t be playable on the Xbox Series X and Series S. “A handful” of games that require Xbox Kinect to play also won’t be playable via backwards compatibility either.
Sony also shed more light on its backwards compatibility plans for the PlayStation 5 not long ago. The company gave its community a list of PlayStation 4 games that won’t be playable on the PlayStation 5 via backwards compatibility, and thankfully, it’s a short one. There are only 10 games that won’t be playable on the next-gen console, but unlike the Xbox Series X and Series S, the PlayStation 5 won’t support games from generations before the PlayStation 4.
