Skip to main content

Xbox Series X to launch with thousands of backward-compatible games

The Xbox Series X, scheduled to launch later this year, promises to be “the most compatible console ever.” The Series X will launch with thousands of games from all three previous Xbox generations.

“Thousands of games are already playable on Xbox Series X today,” Jason Ronald, Director of Program Management said in an Xbox Wire post. “By the time we launch this holiday, the team will have spent well over 200,000 hours ensuring your game library is ready for you to jump in immediately.”

Related Videos

The games available at launch will include popular franchises and fan favorites spanning the last 20 years, although no specific titles have yet been named. Accessories and peripherals from previous generations will also be supported by the Series X.

Microsoft’s Xbox Velocity architecture will improve the performance of these legacy games. They will look better, load more quickly, and run more smoothly on the Series X than on their original consoles, according to Ronald. In many cases, these games will be playable at a higher resolution than ever before, and some will see their frame rates double, up to 120 fps. The Xbox Advanced Technology Group has developed new HDR reconstruction methods that automatically add support for HDR on older games, and the Series X’s new hardware allows for faster, high-quality rendering and higher framerates. Loading times will also be substantially quicker, thanks to the new custom NVME SSD.

All of this processing happens on the console itself, without requiring help from the original title developers. This eliminates the time-consuming porting process, so more games will be playable on the Series X more quickly, and with substantially less effort.

Microsoft’s focus on renewing old favorites has always been an important part of their strategy, but the Series X will go much deeper into the Xbox back catalog than its predecessors. The Xbox 360 was able to play a limited number of Xbox titles, while the Xbox One offered a stronger showing, with compatibility for more than 500 Xbox 360 games.

The full lineup of backward-compatible games has not yet been finalized. The Series X team is still adding new titles to the compatibility program based on community feedback, according to today’s announcement.

Editors' Recommendations

Diablo 4 beta rewards: how to earn all titles and cosmetics
Diablo 4 promotional image of Lillith

Diablo 4's beta is an opportunity for fans of the loot-heavy role-playing game to sink some time into its dark and demonic world before the game launches on June 6. Though you can invest a good bit of time into seeing everything Blizzard has included in the beta, you won't be able to carry the progress you make into the full game, meaning everything you do is just for testing purposes – well, almost everything. By completing a few milestones during the beta, you can earn some neat rewards to use in the full release later this year. Here's how to get them all.
All Diablo 4 beta rewards and how to get them

There are three rewards you can obtain during Diablo 4's beta, including two titles and a unique (and extremely cute) cosmetic – all of which assumedly won't ever be earnable by any other means in the retail game. In other words, if you want anything Blizzard is offering during the beta period, you'll need to devote the time to get them now or risk never having another opportunity.

Read more
Fortnite Nitro Drifter: locations and how to destroy items
fortnite nitro drifter locations destroy items

Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 2 has come packing a variety of new locations, items, and features for fans to check out, from an exciting new cyberpunk city to explore to thrilling melee showdowns with the Kinetic Blade. You'll find a lot to get into on the freshly revamped map, and some of it may even be a part of the season's weekly quests, such as the Week 1 challenge "Destroy objects while drifting or boosting in a Nitro Drifter." In this guide, we'll tell you where you can find a Nitro Drifter racing car to knock out this challenge quickly and easily.
Fortnite Nitro Drifter locations

With the addition of multiple new vehicles in Chapter 4 Season 2, you'd be forgiven for not knowing precisely which one is a Nitro Drifter (pictured above). This colorful street racing car can be found in multiple spots around the map, but it's most plentiful in and around Mega City -- which unfortunately isn't one of the best places to land in Fortnite, due to it being a hotspot. If you don't want to deal with all of the competition you're certain to face in downtown Mega City, your best bet for finding plenty of Nitro Drifters is by landing at the racetrack to the north of the city.

Read more
You can still get a Thunder Shotgun in Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 2. Here’s how
Fortnite characters in a city.

Fortnite has received plenty of exciting new weapons in Chapter 4 Season 2, and in typical fashion, Epic has also vaulted some of last season's weapons to clean up the loot pool. Among the weapons vaulted for Season 2 is the Thunder Shotgun -- but weirdly, it can still be obtained, as it appears Epic possibly overlooked one NPC who drops it.

Anyone who wants to score the Thunder Shotgun in Season 2 can head over to Frenzy Fields and look for the NPC named Sunflower who walks around the farm. Simply eliminate her and pick up the weapon she drops. It's unclear if this is actually something Epic missed, or if the team just simply didn't want to bother changing up Sunflower's loot drops. Either way, it's currently the only way to obtain the Thunder Shotgun.

Read more