Microsoft confirms that the Xbox Series X will launch with thousands of games. The company shared more about the Xbox Series X at The Game Awards 2019, officially confirming the name of the console and letting fans see what it would look like.
Speaking to GameSpot, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said that the Xbox Series X team "wanted to make sure we had that, day one, we could deliver on the compatibility promise." The Xbox One can play thousands of games, said Jason Ronald, the Xbox partner director of program management, and these will also be available on the Xbox Series X.
Xbox Series X players won't just be able to enjoy backward compatible games from the Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Ronald said that the team wants a player's "gaming legacy" to go with them and that means that Achievements, Gamerscore, friends list, and game saves will also be available on the Xbox Series X. There are "no barriers for you as you think about moving forward," said Ronald.
However, bringing all of this to the Xbox Series X won't be easy. Ronald said that because "console games are usually hyper-optimized to the unique hardware capabilities of the device," it will take a huge amount of work to make these games playable on the Xbox Series X. The team did design the Xbox Series X and its silicon with backward compatibility "in mind" so that this would make things easier but that doesn't mean that it's not difficult.
Microsoft is putting a huge amount of money into making sure that gamers have a large number of games to enjoy. The company also keeps adding games to its Xbox Game Pass service and it will likely keep that going with the Xbox Series X. PS4 and Xbox One players may have had a small pool of games to choose from at launch but few will be able to say that about the Xbox Series X.
Sony will also be offering backward compatibility with the PS5, meaning that the feature could potentially be one of the biggest reasons why players buy one console over another. If Sony is unable to offer thousands of PlayStation games to PS5 players then Microsoft will have won on that point and the company will be able to say that it offers gamers much more choice.
Xbox Series X is set to release in Holiday 2020
Source: GameSpot