Microsoft says the Xbox Series X and Series S will run nearly every game released for the original Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on day one, with the only notable exception being titles that require Kinect.
Company tested hundreds of thousands of hours
Jason Ronald, director of product management for Xbox, said on Twitter that the team performed more than 500,000 hours of testing to ensure backward compatibility across the new consoles. According to his post, those efforts confirm that virtually all prior-generation games that run on current Xbox hardware will also run on Series X and S.
Improved appearance and performance at launch
Ronald added that all supported games will “look and perform better” on Xbox Series X and S at launch. Microsoft estimates this means the new systems will arrive with more than 600 playable titles just from the Xbox and Xbox 360 backward-compatibility catalog (the full list is available here), not counting Xbox One launch titles.
How this differs from earlier promises
The company’s statement represents an expansion of earlier messaging. Microsoft had previously suggested next-generation consoles would support “hundreds” of Xbox 360 titles and select original Xbox franchises, and later said many games would run in versions compatible with the Xbox One S. Ronald’s comments indicate broader and more consistent support, plus launch-day enhancements.
Sony’s approach to last-generation compatibility
By contrast, Sony has emphasized PlayStation 5 compatibility primarily with PlayStation 4 titles. PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan told Famitsu that because the PS4 has 100 million players, Sony prioritized making PS4 games playable on PS5. He noted the company did not focus on supporting earlier PlayStation generations in the same way.
Ryan also said that including PS4 compatibility is a strategy to encourage existing PlayStation owners to move to the next generation, and that PS4 content would be available to new PS5 owners through channels such as PlayStation Plus.
Source: Games Industry
