Project Scorpio Will Support Xbox 360 Backwards Compatibility

Microsoft's Project Scorpio console will play all your Xbox One games and even some Xbox 360 titles, it has been revealed. Engineering lead Mike Ybarra confirmed today on Twitter that the new console will "of course" support the Xbox 360 backwards compatibility program.

This is not much of a surprise. Xbox boss Phil Spencer has spoken frequently about his ambition to create a gaming ecosystem with Xbox that goes "beyond" console generations and allows you to play your games on a number of devices. Another Xbox executive, Albert Penello, said this should help ease some of the "disruption" that can happen between console generations.

Backwards compatibility support for Xbox 360 games came to Xbox One in November 2015 as part of the console's New Xbox Experience update. There are now more than 250 Xbox 360 games playable on Xbox One; the newest addition was Blue Dragon, which arrived today.

Project Scorpio, or whatever official name Microsoft ends up giving the console, goes on sale in holiday 2017. Pricing has not been announced, but Microsoft has repeatedly referred to it as a "premium" device, so it likely won't be cheap.

Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro, a new, more powerful version of the PS4, launches on November 10 for $400. Microsoft has said Project Scorpio is more powerful than Sony's console by a significant margin.