This generation of games console has been a bit more jarring for gamers simply because there is no backwards compatibility on either Xbox One or PS4. This has resulted in a split market to some extent, with retailers continuing to push the Xbox 360 and PS3 hard alongside the new machines. And I can’t see that changing any time soon. Sony’s answer to running last-gen games on new hardware is clearly streaming, with the acquisition of Gaikai turning into PlayStation Now later this year.
Microsoft has confirmed it’s still working on plans to make Xbox 360 games playable on your Xbox One. This comes via development lead Frank Savage at Microsoft’s Build developer conference, as reported by Kotaku. “There are [still plans for an emulator] but we’re not done thinking them through yet, unfortunately,” said Savage. “It turns out to be hard to emulate the PowerPC stuff on the X86 stuff. So there’s nothing to announce, but I would love to see it myself.” Microsoft said last year that backwards compatibility on the Xbox One may one day be possible thanks to its Azure cloud servers. In the meantime, Major Nelson has advised against the DIY approach.