All three generations of Xbox will be backwards compatible on Project Scarlett
Speaking at E3 2019, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer confirmed that all your Xbox One purchases will work and carry over on Xbox 2.
Speaking on Inside Xbox during the show, Spencer outlined the console’s vision for backwards compatibility.
Scarlett, which was revealed during yesterday’s conference, will launch in Holiday 2020 alongside Halo Infinite as a flagship launch title.
If you’ve built up a substantial library of Xbox One titles over the past six years, all of them will carry over to the upcoming hardware presumably alongside cloud saves, achievements and all the other good stuff.
We’ve got @XboxP3 in the studio to tell us more about Project Scarlett and our commitment to Backward Compatibility. #InsideXboxE3https://t.co/2dmZXanWQz pic.twitter.com/Vq6xxiFCs6
— Xbox ➡️ E3 (@Xbox) June 10, 2019
That’s wonderful news and means, even if you don’t purchase any games at launch, you’ll still have loads to play on your shiny new console. Here’s hoping the more powerful hardware adds a few extra bells and whistles.
Talking to Gamesindustry.biz, Spencer also confirmed that Scarlett will have a disc drive, and Microsoft still has no plans to abandon physical media.
“Yeah [physical discs are part of our future],” he says.”We know, because we see it, that more and more players are buying digital.”
“We think the experience in certain instances, specifically if I am away from my console and everything is on my hard-drive with the entitlements are all there, there are some scenarios that are easy. But we know that people still have discs.”
Project Scarlett will be a beast of a console – capable of 8K resolution support, ray-tracing, improved performance and full backwards compatibility for Xbox One, Xbox 360 and even original Xbox titles both physical and digital.
Microsoft has been curating an ecosystem for Xbox players across a variety of platforms for years now, and with the help of Phil Spencer, they’re taking all the steps necessary to make this a success.
However, its presence at E3 2019 was once again light on first-party offerings, although we imagine most studios are holding out until the dawn of new consoles next year. That’s when things will get really interesting.
How do you feel about this news? Happy that your library will carry over to Xbox 2? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter @trustedreviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.