NateDrake has shared what he’s heard about the return of Xbox’s Backwards Compatibility Program.
Microsoft VP for next generation Jason Ronald hinted that there would be new ways to play their classic games that they would start rolling out this year.
NateDrake said this in response in a ResetERA thread:
This has been their goal for over a year. I think I made a comment about it before; but MS back-compat team has wanted to bring & make your OG Xbox and Xbox 360 digital library playable on PC.
The Xbox backwards compatibility program was one of the few saving graces that saw success in the Xbox One era, and was carried over to the Xbox Series X|S. But the program ended in 2021, with Microsoft citing they could not license more games.
NateDrake didn’t mention getting Xbox and Xbox 360 discs playing on Windows, and we imagine Microsoft has to contend with the unfortunate realities of the disc drive market to try that.
Beyond this, we do wonder if there’s also a solution for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S games. Play Anywhere and Game Pass don’t cover all games on both stores.