Xbox Series X Will Play Games From Every Xbox Generation

29 May 2020, 00:40

The Xbox Series X is shaping up to be a powerful console this coming generation. Earlier today in a blog post, Director of Program Management for the console Jason Ronald dove deep into all the power it would deliver.

The biggest takeaway is that it will play games from every single Xbox console generation. So while you might immediately want to dive into current games that launch with the Series X later this year, you'll be able to play an OG console title if you want to.

However that doesn't mean you can play every game from every generation. There will be a large number of available titles across all of them combined. But it certainly won't be every one.

The Xbox Series X will play thousands of games at launch

Ronald doesn't mention specific numbers, but he does say that the Series X will have access to thousands of games at launch.

How many thousands exactly of course is still unclear. Thousands is still a big number though. And it's one that Sony is hopefully keeping in mind as it gears up to reveal and launch the PlayStation 5 this holiday season. As it should be taking a page out of Microsoft's book here.

With the Series X, gamers will have access to all of their Xbox One libraries. As well as the capability to play back catalog of many older games from the Xbox 360 and original Xbox.

That's a feature that shouldn't be understated. It's very easy to rack up a huge library of games and commonly leave more than a few of them behind as the months and years go by. The Xbox team is ensuring that anyone who has untouched or unfinished games will still be able to play them on the new console. So long as they're ones that are supported by this feature.

The team has already spent over 100,000 hours play testing games

How did the Xbox team get to a point where it could ensure that thousands of games were playable with the new Series X when it launches later this year?

Easy. By spending thousands of hours play testing games from every generation. According to Ronald the team that made it possible to play older games on the Xbox One is the same team working on that feature for Series X.

And that team has already spent over 100,000 hours play testing games for the console's launch. By the time it releases, that number will have jumped to at least 200,000 hours of play testing.

If you pick up a Series X console later this year, rest assured you can play tons of games right out of the gate. Both new and old alike. All that's left to do is sit around and wait till you can unbox one.

In the meantime, you can enjoy tons of different Xbox games through xCloud if you're in the beta, or check out any of the newer titles in Game Pass.