Xbox Series X will be 'most compatible console ever', says Microsoft, as next-gen battle against PS5 continues

Even old games should look better on the new console, developers say

(Microsoft)

The Xbox Series X will be the most compatible console ever, Microsoft has claimed, as its battle with the PlayStation 5 continues.

The new Xbox console will be able to play games from the original Xbox and will bring players' progression in these games to the latest generation, Microsoft said in a new update.

Those older games should even look better on the new hardware, even if they were made for previous generations, the company has said.

The new updates come after Microsoft said that as well as allowing games from the original Xbox to work on the new one, it will also allow all accessories that currently work with the Xbox One to work with the new console too.

They are in keeping with the suggestion from Microsoft that the Xbox Series X is more of an iterative update than an entirely new generation, with the name intended to suggest that it is part of a range of Xboxes that include the current generation and any more that come in the future.

The company has stressed backwards compatibility in many of its announcements, as it prepares to release the new console in the holiday period later this year.

Microsoft says that has posed a "massive technical challenge as fundamental system and chip architectures advance across generations". It noted that developers create games for individual consoles, and that therefore bringing them to new generations requires work on both the hardware as well as the software in the new generation.

It has conducted more than 100,000 hours of play testing to ensure that older games work on the Xbox Series X, Microsoft said. By the time of launch, that should have doubled, ensuring that any technical problems are overcome before the release date.

Many of those games should look better than they do on the older Xboxes for which they were developed, Microsoft said. Since all games will run natively on the console, they will be able to take full advantage of its performance, which should lead to higher framerates and better resolution, Microsoft said.

The company will also use new technologies such as "HDR reconstruction" which will allow the Xbox to add high dynamic range to older games that don't already have it, even if they were developed for the original Xbox, long before HDR even existed.

Microsoft will also bring its "Quick Resume" feature to older games, which allows players to start straight away from where they left off, even if they have been into other titles in the meantime.