Cloud may make Xbox One backwards compatibility possible one day
According to Xbox Director of Product Planning Albert Penello, backwards compatibility is “absolutely” a possibility at some point in the future for the Xbox One. Speaking to GameSpot at PAX Prime in Washington, the senior director mentioned that “what the cloud can do is sort of hard to pin” from “voice processing” to “rendering full games” and “delivering it to the box” itself. Penello noted the cost of this as something to consider as well, in addition to the quality of the service that they would be able to deliver. Despite this nothing has been confirmed yet in the way of backwards compatibility in terms of the console’s future and the integration of cloud technology.
He also discussed in the interview the concept of digital technology and how this will impact the next generation console moving forward. Talking about the push towards all-digital Penello said that “For us, we probably said it was going to happen sooner than people were ready for it to happen.” However, when asked if they had ever imagined the Xbox One without a disc drive, Penello denied this stating that “the size of the games that are coming now” are the reason for the necessity of the disc drive within the console.
It’s hard to tell whether or not gamers will ever be able to relive old Xbox and Xbox 360 favorites on the new console but thanks to the use of cloud technology this idea does not seem entirely impossible. For the full interview with Albert Penello head over to GameSpot.
Source: GameSpot