In less than a week’s time now, Microsoft will launch their next generation consoles in the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. While who knows if you’ll be able to find many of these on the shelves themselves, if you managed to snag a pre-order, it’s probably quite the fun time to look forward to. One aspect that Microsoft has focused on more than competitor Sony has been backward compatibility. While the PS5 will be BC with most PS4 titles, the Series consoles will be able to go back not to just to the Xbox One but even further to select Xbox 360 and original Xbox games, and it’s been in the works for a good while.
Speaking to Inverse, Jason Ronald, Director of Program Management at Xbox, revealed that they had actually been working on the backward compatibility features for years, since 2016 in fact, since before the consoles form has been finalized. This has allowed to really refine the process and come up with neat features such as Auto HDR. He also mentioned that more 360 and original Xbox titles could be coming, but didn’t get into specifics.
“We’ve been working on the Xbox Series X and Series S since 2016. Before we even had silicon, we would take performance captures of existing games and run them on a simulator of the next-generation chip. That allowed us to identify potential issues in the silicon before it was even produced. With every iteration, we tested to make sure games continued to run. Then we would look at how to enhance some of these titles. That’s where techniques like Auto HDR came from.”
Ronald also said earlier that the BC natures of the Series consoles weren’t about selling more copies, but also to preserve and improve classic titles. We’ve already seen some pretty incredible improvements to older titles such as improved framerate and faster loading times. It’ll be quite fun to go back to some older stuff when the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S launch in November 10th.