Microsoft’s backward compatibility on Xbox Series X and Series S allows gamers to play thousands of games from across generations of Xbox console in whole new ways. Microsoft wants Xbox gamers to play all of their favorite games from the past. This way, gamers don’t have to re-purchase those same games for the next generation of Xbox consoles. Plus, those games should not feel outdated.
Microsoft details Xbox backward compatibility
Microsoft has detailed the Xbox Series X and Series S backward compatibility experience that is going live next month.
“Preserving and improving the thousands of games you know and love, or have yet to discover, has been a core objective since the beginning of the backward compatibility program in 2015,” said Peggy Lo, Compatibility Program Lead at Xbox.
Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S gamers can experience backward compatibility starting November 10, 2020.
Xbox backward compatibility: How does it work?
As Microsoft explains, Xbox Series X and Series S consoles are capable of natively running backward compatible games, courtesy of the power of the CPU, GPU, and SSD.
“No boost mode, no downclocking, the full power of the consoles for each and every backward compatible game,” Lo added.
Backward-compatible games run at the peak performance that they were originally designed for. It also enables significantly higher performance than the game’s original launch platform.
Higher framerate and rendering maximum resolution and visual quality
Games that support backward compatibility benefit from reduced load times due to performance upgrade, courtesy of custom NVME SSD powering the Xbox Velocity Architecture.
As we know, new Xbox consoles are launching this November. But before that happens, the Xbox team will have invested resources into ensuring that backward compatibility doesn’t affect the gaming experience. Xbox has promised to increase hardware performance at no additional cost.
Xbox backward compatibility will also double the framerates, increasing the consumption of CPU, GPU, and memory resources on the next generation Xbox consoles. Fallout 4, for instance, framerates effectively doubled from 30fps to 60fps on Xbox Series S.
