Following the Xbox One reveal back in May, former Microsoft executive Don Mattrick said it wouldn’t be backwards compatible with Xbox 360 games. At a company meeting in September, however, Microsoft (no longer under Mattrick) showed off cloud-based game streaming with Halo 4 on Windows PC and Windows Phone, suggesting that the technology could allow Xbox One users to play Xbox and Xbox 360 titles online. Unfortunately, the general public isn’t yet ready to make that jump.
Albert Penello, Microsoft’s Senior Director of Product Management, recently spoke to Polygon about cloud-based streaming and backward compatibility at an Xbox One demo in New York:
It’s really cool and really problematic, all at the same time, insofar as it’s really super cool if you happen to have the world’s most awesome internet connection. It works way better than you’d expect it to.
The problem is that most Xbox One users won’t have “the world’s most awesome internet connection.” According to Penello, Microsoft maintains interest in the possibility nevertheless.
It was a grand experiment, I know we did a lot of work behind it, and we said this is one of the things where the network just has to get better before we can do it. When that happens, you’re going to have a really interesting conversation around that, can I actually run Xbox One games that way as well.
Sony, who is also working towards cloud-based streaming on its PlayStation 4, has been facing similar broadband issues in Europe. It purchased Gaikai for that purpose last year for $380 million and plans to launch the service in North America sometime in 2014.
