Xbox engineering lead Mike Ybarra confirms on Twitter that Project Scorpio will work with the Xbox 360 backwards compatibility program when the console releases in 2017.

It's been known since its reveal at this year's E3 that Microsoft's Project Scorpio will play all current and future Xbox One titles. The point of the still-in-development console is to provide Xbox One fans with a beefed up system capable of higher fidelity graphics and smoother overall performance, but in the end, Scorpio is still considered to be part of the Xbox family.

So it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that Project Scorpio will also be able to play some Xbox 360 titles. That's the news that Xbox engineering lead Mike Ybarra confirmed today on Twitter, stating that Scorpio will offer full support for the Xbox 360 backward compatibility program.

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The program, first announced last year with an initial list of 104 Xbox 360 titles that could be played on Xbox One, has had quite a few games added throughout 2016. The current list of more than 250 games is available on Xbox.com but all of the expected fan favorites are there, including Red Dead Redemption, Fallout: New Vegas and of course, multiple Halo titles.

While this news isn't exactly going to set the industry on fire, it does potentially give Microsoft another talking point in the never-ending war against Sony's PlayStation lineup. Microsoft executives have hinted that Scorpio could release around the same price point as Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro but have also been quick to point out that Scorpio may provide more bang for the buck than Sony's offering. The PlayStation 4 Pro hits stores on November 10 for $399.

Just to be fair, it's worth pointing out that while the PlayStation 4 does not offer direct backward compatibility with PlayStation 3 games, many of the most popular PS3 titles can be played through Sony's PlayStation Now service. PlayStation Now lets gamers pay a monthly subscription fee to stream their favorite games from yesteryear to their PlayStation 4 or even their PC. Microsoft would likely point out that a key difference between the programs is that Xbox One fans who still have their old Xbox 360 games do not have to pay a fee to play the games on Xbox One.

If nothing else, the confirmation from Ybarra has succeeded in keeping Project Scorpio in the news just a little over one week from the PlayStation 4 Pro's release. Gamers can probably expect Microsoft to continue to drop information about Scorpio's "amazing progress" as the holiday season continues.

Project Scorpio will release during the holiday season in 2017.

Source: Gamespot