Xbox One team "built a virtual Xbox 360 entirely in software" for backwards compatibility

When news broke about the Xbox One receiving backward compatibility in the coming months, much of the internet erupted with joy. Microsoft was awarded praises from on-the-fence console buyers as well as from previously frustrated Xbox 360 users.

[DevilOgreFish]

" According to Bill, the Xbox team "built a virtual Xbox 360 entirely in software. And then we take the old 360 games put them in the emulation program that is built into Windows 10.""

Windows 10 can emulate 360 games? noway!

[4Sh0w]

Wow, that's sick.

-Also, if a lot of your favorites are first party, I'm sure they are going to be in the first 100+ list coming this fall:

"while waiting for individual 3rd party license agreements to clear, Microsoft will initially be pushing all first party titles into the program."

[Bigpappy]

People can try to down play this feature as much as it can bring them some sort of weird comfort. But this is a huge feature. And yes, just know you have the choice of that huge back catalog at your of physical and digital content, can entice many on the fence and some on the other side to finally give in and get themselves an Xbox One.

Things like this (features) add lots more value to the console.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

Leave it up to a company like MS to figure out this once thought impossible feat.

[mikeslemonade]

Not sure what's more impressive: BC or fitting a 360 emulaton on a relatively weak hardware like the X1.

[christocolus]

@4show

Its amazing what can be accomplished via software emulation.It would be nice if Xbox 360 games with gold were also made available on Xbox One from here on out.would be awesome.

[sinjonezp]

With the fact that windows 10 is the platform for emulation, I wonder if you will be able to just pop your Xbox 360 games into your dvd drive and windows 10 will read them? This is pretty cool and exciting. I am sure there are significant hurdles to cross but if they can get to a point where you load up windows 10 and can access the Xbox 360 store and play games on your PC or from your dvd, that would be a awesome sell for windows 10 in my opinion.

[Gazondaily]

"It would be nice if Xbox 360 games with gold were also made available on Xbox One "

That's a really good idea and I can see it happening.

Also, similar with EA Access; EA could be giving away digital 360 titles in the future:

http://www.gameondaily.com/...

Watch this space!

[kraenk12]

I'll be impressed when really complex and processor heavy games like RDR will be emulated.

[sinspirit]

Yeah. They announced Windows XBox compatibility before. Obviously, it never happened. So, really they already had a lot of work done for this to be translated onto X1.

[Blaze929]

lol yet people still doubt MS's capabilities to continue changing/improving the Xbox One through software...

Software Gods

[MyDietEqualsGames]

if that is true and within the OS, I expect it to be exploited in some way. =/

[kneon]

If it's true that Windows 10 will run 360 games then they are heading towards my suggestion from a couple of years ago. All games will be playable on Windows and the XB1 just becomes a living room friendly gaming PC for people that can't be bothered to build their own or just want the official reference platform.

[DarkBlood]

wait this is going to be possible when my laptop gets upgraded to win10?

or is this feature just for xbox one? doesnt matter too much because i got them all, just wishing to know for curiosity sake?

[TomLovesXBOX]

if this is possible on my labtop, then I don't see any point in getting an xbox now.

[JMaine518]

Wow these guys are amazing at what they do.

[DevilOgreFish]

They better Add Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero to the list.

[4logpc]

PDZ is already on the list. In fact im playing it right now!

[Mikefizzled]

He is sort of telling the truth. PAL versions of PDZ and Banjo N'n'B currently don't work. I haven't been able to get either to work since launch whereas PAL Viva Pinata games works fine.

[holysmokesbatman]

kameo is on the list too.
Read.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

All the Ninja Gaidens, Ninja Blade and Tenchu Z as well.

[starchild]

Yes, thank you, those are important games for me too. Well, not Ninja Blade since I own it on PC, but I would still like to play those others.

[Rookie_Monster]

MS said all their 1st party games will be made BC on XB1 so no doubt Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Alan Wake, Shadow Complex, Halo Wars, Kameo will all be there at launch or shortly after. :)

Also, I doubted this emulator will be on Windows PC because of the thousands of different hardware configuration unlike the unified XB1 system. I CAN'T see Halo Reach running on my Surface Pro 2 but I Would love to though.

[Mikefizzled]

You completely contradicted yourself there. All those games in your list are 3rd party Microsoft Studios published titles. I would love to see if Halo Wars gets an fps boost from this though.

[magiciandude]

MS is really getting prepared to do some massive damage with Xbox One. This is only the beginning. The Xbox 360 is very difficult to emulate, but the fact they're managing to pull it off is nothing short of exciting for every Xbox One owner. Having the ability to play Xbox 360 games is very important to me as I switched from PS to Xbox. This opens a sizable backlog of games I've yet to play. I'd much rather play classic Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One than on the 360 because it's far more convenient to use the same console for all your games.

This is, without a doubt, the best news of the generation so far. Apart from BC, anything exciting has been pretty rare these days. One of way too many reasons why I decided to buy an Xbox One last fall was the slight possibility of BC, and now it's finally official.

Now, I am somewhat confused about the Windows 10 statement. Since the Xbox One will run on Windows 10, I am going to assume the emulator will only be available on the console and not on the PC. The ability to play Xbox 360 games on PC would be awesome, but if that's the case, chances are we would've already known about this by now.

[AndrewLB]

The Xbox 360 is hard to emulate if you don't have access to the console's source code. That's the key factor here.

[WitWolfy]

LOL "source code"

Watch out we got a badass over here...

Source code has nothing to do with it buddy.

[NeoGamer232]

Source code is useful, but that is only part of the equation and it is the easy part. Since the architecture of the processor, gpu and esram are different on x1 they had to build the vm to emulate the hardware. That is where the real rocket science is.

[GameSpawn]

"Source code" is the wrong word. "Machine code" is what you are looking for. Since Microsoft developed/had access to the API and machine code for the Xenon that IBM made them they can "virtualize" the Xenon in software and translate that code into one that the Xbox One's custom AMD x86 processor can understand.

The only problem will be games where the developers utilized the Xenon (and the 360 GPU) in out of the box ways not intended by Microsoft. These will inevitably trip up the VM and either cause a crash or very slow performance - as such these types of games will need patches and workarounds to correct whatever they're doing to throw everything off.

[ZaWarudo]

What sorcery is THIS?!?!?

[BattleAxe]

The effects of backwards compatibility will hit the competition hard once the average joe who isn't in the know, figures this out.

[Corpser]

Some software wizardry is going on here

[TwoForce]

Now that's something I want to hear. Technology can be cool.

[Julion0715]

This is why I always choose ms bcuz they jus know how to wow you with their software talent. The things they can do is always surprising now jus waiting for that windows 10 update for preview members

[PhoenixUp]

Meanwhile PS4 still can't even play PS1 Classics

[gosukyomomma]

And the xboxone cant play the original xbox games so whats your point lol?

[CoLD FiRE]

You can emulate PS1 games on a potato, can't say the same about the original Xbox which is way more powerful than a PS1.

[gosukyomomma]

7 disagrees lmao wait so if i go downstairs with an original xbox version of forza and put it straight into my xboxone it will work right?!

No it does not ffs. gheeze its scary how stupid MS fanboys are its pretty shameful that i game with this group thank god i mainly play single player games on my xbox because thier community is terrible.

[PhoenixUp]

PS2, PSP, PS3, Xperia Play, and Vita can play PS1 games. No reason for PS4 to be excluded from the group.

Not to mention that PS1 emulation is far easier than Xbox emulation. If a cell phone can play PS1 games, no excuse PS4 can't.0

[Iltapalanyymi]

so theoretically this means, that with tiny little patches, original xbox could work too?

[yuukiliu]

Meanwhile I didn't trade in my old gen console. I barely even touch it anymore. I don't see why this is so exciting. I'm too busy with work to even use my new gem console. Handhelds are my main thing now. Cool it you wanted it though.

[JasonKCK]

It would be nice to play my old 360 games on my gaming laptop. To me that is portable gaming.

[lemoncake]

They have done an awesome job, first just getting BC and on top of that having games actually run better under emulation tells you just how good the emulator really is. Absolutely Loving it, now we just need the games to come fast.

[EvilWay]

The only problem I have with the backwards compatibility, and it really isn't a big deal is we need a hub where we can download the games straight from the Xbox one instead of having the 360 disc or having digitally downloaded on 360

[FlexLuger]

Not surprised. MS are know a thing or two about software and virtual machines. Glad to know that all X360 will eventually be able to play on X1. I have a lot of digital x360 games!

[Claudinho69]

basically what people been doing for every console that existed, on their own for free?

[jjb1981]

The when I play perfect dark, it starts up like an xbox 360