Xbox Reveals Game Preservation Plan, Also Moving Full Steam Ahead On Next-Gen Console

Xbox plans on continuing to lead the way in game preservation, which will play a big role on the next Xbox currently being worked on by its hardware division. This is all according to internal e-mails provided to Windows Central, and have been confirmed as genuine by Microsoft. The e-mails were sent by Sarah Bond, President of Xbox, shortly after she was promoted to the position.

To help spearhead the effort to ensure older games work on new Xbox hardware, there is now a dedicated team to help make this happen. Bond says, "we have formed a new team dedicated to game preservation, important to all of us at Xbox and the industry itself." She would go on to add that Xbox is “building on our strong history of delivering backwards compatibility to our players, and we remain committed to bringing forward the amazing library of Xbox games for future generations of players to enjoy."


Bond also touches on what to expect from the next generation of Xbox. She says that the company is “moving full speed ahead on our next generation hardware, focused on delivering the biggest technological leap ever in a generation." How her team plans on making it feel like such a big leap will be interesting, as developers struggle with the ballooning costs of creating ever more visually impressive games.

There was a peak behind the curtains as to the plans for the next Xbox from the document release during the Microsoft and FTC court case, showing what gamers can can look forward to. The documents detail the possible inclusion of Zen 6 hardware, but rumors are that has been downgraded to Zen 5 to achieve a lower cost box. Continuing with Zen hardware should make the backward compatibility efforts go smoother.

There has been a lot of discussion around game preservation as game sales shift increasingly to digital offerings. Combine this with game publishers looking to revisit their back catalogs for remasters that can bring in more profit, and it’s easy to see why some might be worried. However, it should be heartening to see one of the biggest players in the gaming space spending time and resources so that older games can still be playable on new hardware.