A newly leaked email has revealed XBOX’s plans for backwards compatibility, and it’s massive.
Retro Gamer 74 claims that this email was sent to Xbox’s partners, to discuss how they can make their Xbox and Xbox 360 games available on future platforms. It mentions the Xbox Backwards Compatibility Early Access on PC they announced two weeks ago. But it also mentions their disc-to-digital program, codenamed Positron.
The schedule says that Positron launches this August, and the Backwards Compatibility PC initiative starts October. Xbox 360 games will then roll out to future Xbox devices in 2027 to 2028.
As some fans already figured out, Xbox Backwards Compatibility on PC is actually using an Xbox 360 emulator to run Xbox games. This emulator is the lynchpin of their program.
However, XBOX sent this email out because they need publishers’ permissions to bring their games forward. They made this pitch in the letter:
For both programs, XBOX manages all engineering, certification, and support efforts. You, the Publisher, keeps full control over rights, pricing, and brand; your only lift is opting in and setting commercial terms.
And so, the success of this program will depend a lot on their publishers.
