All Xbox 360 games will get Xbox One backwards compatibility (if Microsoft boss gets his way)

If a tweet from Xbox’s Phil Spencer is to be believed, Microsoft won’t be done with adding more backwards compatible Xbox 360 games to the Xbox One library for a while yet. 

In a recent tweet, Spencer said that he’d like to have “all” 360 games work with the Xbox One. 

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The tweet came in response to a comment asking for Black Ops II to be made backwards compatible, which is one of the most requested games from the older console generation. 

As Spencer points out in his response, having all "3P" (third party) titles supported by the backwards compatibility scheme is a worthy (and ambitious) goal that would go down very well with the Xbox community.

Forward-thinking backwards compatibility 

This generation hasn’t been a great one for backwards compatibility. 

Whereas Sony’s launch PS3 hardware literally contained PS2 components to help it emulate its older brother, neither the Xbox One nor PS4 were backwards compatible at launch. 

That has since changed with the PS4’s PlayStation Now streaming service, and the addition of a number of backwards compatible games to the Xbox One console. 

Microsoft has made good progress on adding 360 games to the Xbox One, but because of the differences in architecture the relevant work needs to be done on a case-by-case basis. 

Recently we’ve seen the addition of Red Dead Redemption and Call of Duty: Black Ops, and if Spencer stands by his words there might be a great deal more games to come in the future. 

  • We just hope Microsoft has a better backwards compatibility plan in place when it eventually releases the Xbox Two
Jon Porter

Jon Porter is the ex-Home Technology Writer for TechRadar. He has also previously written for Practical Photoshop, Trusted Reviews, Inside Higher Ed, Al Bawaba, Gizmodo UK, Genetic Literacy Project, Via Satellite, Real Homes and Plant Services Magazine, and you can now find him writing for The Verge.