One of the things we knew first hand about the Xbox One was that it wouldn't be straightforward backwards compatible with your physical Xbox 360 game discs. What a lot of people were questioning, however, was whether backwards compatibility would become available via digital iterations of Xbox 360 games or perhaps, offer backwards compatibility via the Cloud? Well, the answer is no.
Digital Trends asked some straight-through questions to a representative of the billion dollar corporation about additional methods for backwards compatibility, perhaps, utilizing a similar function to Sony and how they're using Gaikai for PS4 backwards compatibility. Here's what the rep had to say...
“Xbox One hardware is not compatible with Xbox 360 games,” ... “We designed Xbox One to play an entirely new generation of games—games that are architected to take full advantage of state-of-the-art processors and the infinite power of the cloud. We care very much about the investment people have made in Xbox 360 and will continue to support it with a pipeline of new games and new apps well into the future.”
This quote mirrors what was originally announced back on the day of the Xbox One's announcement last week.
However, this is baffling...completely and utterly baffling. I understand that they've moved from a PowerPC architecture to an x86 architecture (making both the Xbox One and PS4 closer relatives than you might think) but I would have at least thought that the “infinite power of the Cloud” would have some of that power used to replicate Xbox 360 games. Perhaps this is one of those policies that's still not finalized at the Redmond, Washington corporate headquarters and hopefully they'll reconsider.
Essentially, though, you'll need to hold on to your Xbox 360 (at all costs) and keep your games because they won't be made available in any capacity on the Xbox One. Again, I find this to be quite a baffling affair given that it's now confirmed that none of your accessories from the Xbox 360 will carry over, none of your games will carry over and only your Xbox Live subscription and Gamertags will be interchangeable.
I sure hope Microsoft has some other plans in store, because right now a console that inculcates used game fees, has an always-listening/watching Kinect 2.0 and has a mandatory 24 hour check-in isn't looking like much of an upgrade or a very consumer-friendly media device at all.
I'll tell you this, Microsoft better make the most use of their stage time at E3 explaining away all the confusion and “inaccuracies” surrounding the Xbox One.
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