We’re certainly interested in seeing what the folks over at Microsoft have planned for Xbox moving forward. We are aware that additional hardware is in development. However, beyond that, it’s a big mystery. To potentially shed light on one of the major projects underway at Xbox, an insider claims that significant overhauls are coming to the Xbox backwards compatibility feature for past Xbox consoles. More specifically, this new feature will undergo some overhauling and be included in a massive collection of games on the Xbox Game Pass service.
The news comes from an insider named Extas1s, who has a strong following. Based on translations, it appears that there is currently a push to expand the Xbox Game Pass service with a large catalog of games spanning the original Xbox and Xbox 360. Going further, it appears that not only will these games be playable, but they will also be stable and feature graphical improvements. So, it could be that these games will play better than ever before.
What’s more interesting is that these games will land on Xbox Game Pass. The insider notes that you’ll be able to play them via the cloud, Xbox consoles, and the upcoming Xbox Ally devices. It’s also somewhat surprising to see who is working on this project, as it’s a collaborative effort between Microsoft and the Xenia emulator team. For those unaware, Xenia is an open-source project to emulate Xbox 360 games on the PC platform.
As for when we can expect to see this program rolled out, that won’t happen until 2026. The insider noted that the Xbox backwards compatibility announcement will occur in 2026, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of Xbox. It is also reported that two waves of games are scheduled to arrive in 2026.
Of course, we have to wait and see how this plays out. I know that there will be plenty of questions regarding licensing issues alone. However, this is just a rumor for now, as the Xbox team has made no official announcement on the matter.
