Though it took awhile to get there shortly after launch, the Xbox One has been able to play 360 games via backwards compatibility. But Xbox boss Phil Spencer doesn’t want to end it there, as he wants the Xbox One to play original Xbox games as well. Just don’t expect it anytime soon.
This is in response to a fan on Twitter, who asked Spencer whether pkaying original Xbox games would be possible, to which Spencer responded with “we haven’t ruled it out but we aren’t working on it right now. I’d like to find the time to do it.” While it is a bit of a bummer to hear that it isn’t coming, the fact that Spencer is even considering making a console play games from two generations back is still impressive.
For the longest time, whenever consoles did backwards compatibility, such as the PlayStation 2 or the Nintendo DS, they would only do it for the last generation only (though in the case of the PlayStation 2, there wasn’t anything from Sony before the PlayStation 1 that they could pull from), so you couldn’t play games from two generations back on your new device. The PlayStation 3 did have it with PlayStation 2 and 1 games at launch, but the feature was quickly scrapped with newer models.
If the Xbox One were to suddenly play original Xbox games, this would certainly be a big deal, as that kind of backward compatibility hasn’t been done. It would obviously take a lot of work, but with Microsoft’s success with making Xbox 360 games work on the Xbox One, it would be pretty cool and a great expansion to the Xbox One’s library to see some older games like the original Halo or Morrowind be playable on a newer system.
We haven't ruled it out but we aren't working on it right now. I'd like to find the time to do it.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) October 12, 2016
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