Xbox One will be backwards compatible with original Xbox games

Microsoft announced at the E3 games show that a new backward compatibility program is coming for the Xbox One console. This makes it possible to play games that came out for the original Xbox.

Xbox marketing chief Albert Penello made announced the news on Twitter. He also wrote that it will be possible to use the original game discs and that the digital licenses are transferable. In addition, there is the possibility to use system link with consoles of all three Xbox generations. In this way, different consoles can be linked together and the same game can be played on different systems.

There is no catalog available yet of the original Xbox games that will be playable. The respective Microsoft page only states that the feature will be available in the fall of this year and that more details will be announced by then. When Microsoft announced backward compatibility for Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One, there were initially a limited number of games available. In November 2015, Microsoft announced the first 104 compatible games. The list has since grown to 386.