Xbox One Backwards Compatibility with Original Xbox Would be a Challenge

Would you like to see original Xbox games added to Xbox One backward's compatibility? Microsoft say this is possible, but would be a challenge.

With PlayStation 4 using an emulator recently to run PlayStation 2 games interest has been raised as to whether Xbox One could one day run original Xbox games. It appears that this may be more challenging that you would expect.

In an interview on The Inner Circle podcast with Xbox Engineering Boss Mike Ybarra the question on whether this is a possibility led to the reply of “nothing’s impossible” but focus right now is on Xbox 360 compatibility. Which is obvious as this was what interest in the backwards compatibility program was all about.

“We’re not looking at original Xbox games on Xbox One yet,” he said. “Right now the focus is making more Xbox 360 games work. [It would be] certainly very challenging. Getting Xbox 360 games to work was incredibly challenging and really a multi-year engineering investment. Going all the way back to the original certainly would challenge the team.”

This doesn’t mean that hope should be lost on this still being worked on though as he did add:

“I’m sure they would love that one as an opportunity to go look at,”

It will be interesting to see, even if it was possible, just how many people would want compatibility with the original Xbox and what games they would want to play. Obviously there will be certain titles that were released on the console and never made it to Xbox 360 so there’s no doubt a few nostalgic memories may be triggered.

With backwards compatibility finally coming to Xbox One though, I’m sure most people will want a focus on getting their favourite Xbox 360 games on their Xbox One. Once they have those, then maybe look back to the previous generation’s games.

Do you have any fond memories of Microsoft’s original Xbox? Are there any games you’d like to see make a return? Let us know your thoughts below.

Paul is a fan of single player games, but lately has pushed himself into online gameplay. Often found taking the stealthy approach of hiding behind trees in H1Z1 Battle Royal sessions, he also plays Grand ...