Tijdens de E3 maakt Microsoft bekend dat de Xbox One backward compatibility krijgt en je dus oude Xbox 360 games op je gloednieuwe One kunt spelen. Alleen vragen veel mensen zich nu af hoe dit dan dadelijk in zijn werk gaat. Op deze vraag kreeg de website Engadget antwoord van Microsoft General Manager of Games Publishing Shannon Loftis. Want Microsoft runt gewoon een emulator die je games gaan opstarten, maar let wel op het zijn er honderd (populaire games) en later zullen er andere titels aan worden toegevoegd. Dus dit is zoals ik al eerder zei, precies hetzelfde trucje dat ze ook deden met de games van de originele Xbox op de X360.

Are you pleased with the response to the announcement of backward compatibility on Xbox One?

It's something that I, as a gamer, have been wanting. Actually, the genesis of backwards compatibility is that gamers asked for it. It took some time for us to figure out how to do it, but we did and the response has been amazingly positive.

How does it work, technologically?

It wasn't easy. It took some pretty dedicated engineering effort and very talented engineers. What they did was they created a software-based 360 emulation within the Xbox One architecture. So, when you put your disc in the drive, we're actually loading up an emulator, and then we put up a little portion of the Xbox 360 dashboard and you use that dashboard to launch into your game. You still have access though to all the great Xbox One features: game streaming, game DVR, screenshots. It works for digital games as well and your saved games do transfer. Gamers have put so much into 360 games, so much passion, energy, time, money, and that value I think is important for us to bring into the Xbox One story.

Will every Xbox 360 game eventually be available via backward compatibility?

It's up to gamers to tell us what they want. We do all the work, but there is a little bit of work and part of that involves talking with the publisher and making sure that this is consistent with their goals for the game as well. So, as gamers ask us, we will deliver.