Skip to main content

The Xbox One will be backwards-compatible with original Xbox discs

The Xbox One will be backwards-compatible with original Xbox discs

/

Here’s how it works

Share this story

Microsoft announced that the Xbox One is getting backwards compatibility support for original Xbox games at its E3 presentation, and now we know a little more about how that will actually work.

Per Microsoft’s Albert Penello (as spotted by our friends at Polygon) things should be pretty simple: Original Xbox discs will work, presumably as an authorization to access an emulated digital copy, similar to the way Xbox 360 emulation currently works on the Xbox One. If you own digital licenses to copies of original Xbox games from back in the day, those will transfer over too.

And most impressively, you’ll be able to play local multiplayer for old Xbox titles through system link, which will support all three generations of Microsoft’s consoles. That’s right, you’ll be able to to play supported games at a LAN party by wiring up an Xbox to an Xbox 360 to an Xbox One.

We still don’t know what original Xbox games are coming to the Xbox One, or when to expect the feature to roll out, but Microsoft should be showing off more about the feature over the next few days at E3.