Xbox Series X games will be playable on old consoles with Microsoft cloud service, company says

Andrew Griffin
Wednesday 16 June 2021 13:00 EDT
Comments
(AFP via Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Old Xboxes will be able to play next-generation games, Microsoft has announced – by streaming them over the internet.

The feature will mean that the Xbox One, first released in 2013, will be able to play games that have not yet been released. Normally, those consoles would be obsolete, without new games and lagging behind the new technology.

But Microsoft says that it will let those consoles play games through its xCloud service. That allows games to stream online, meaning that the processing is done elsewhere and streamed over the internet.

The feature was hidden in a bigger announcement by Microsoft about what games are coming in the future, including those from Bethesda, the game developer that it recently bought. It pointed to a host of titles that are incoming, from Forza Horizon 5 to Bethesda’s own Starfield.

Many of those games will require the “speed, performance, and technology” of the new hardware in the Xbox Series X and S, the company said. “We’re excited to see developers realize their visions in ways that only next-gen hardware will allow them to do.”

But the reliance on next-gen hardware will not necessarily mean that players will actually have to do have those new consoles in their house, the company announced.

“For the millions of people who play on Xbox One consoles today, we are looking forward to sharing more about how we will bring many of these next-gen games, such as Microsoft Flight Simulator, to your console through Xbox Cloud Gaming, just like we do with mobile devices, tablets, and browsers,” the company wrote in its announcement.

The company gave no indication of when the feature would be arriving. Flight Simulator is due to be released on the console on July, but Microsoft did not say that the feature would be available by then.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in