Can Xbox One Play 360 Games? (& How)

Since the gaming industry has exponentially grown with the tech industry that continues to show us how much we haven’t explored technology yet, we’ve seen cool things and tricks that can be done with technology and gaming. For instance, gaming companies implementing the “play with friends online” feature, the online community where you can play with friends, share your achievements, and so on. However, since the Xbox One’s release, fans of the gaming console company and its community wonder if it’s possible to play Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One console as it’s been teased prior to the release of the console. 

Yes, you can play Xbox 369 games on your Xbox One console. Although you can only play selected games on the console, hence you’ll need to make sure that the Xbox 360 games you want to play on your Xbox One are backward compatible games. You can verify if they are compatible on Xbox’s website. 

Playing backward compatible games on your Xbox One was made by Xbox during the launch of the Xbox One console but not all users know how to use this feature. That’s why in this article, I’ll be discussing the possibilities of you playing Xbox 360 games on Xbox One and how to use the backward compatibility feature to play the games. 

Can You Play Xbox 360 Games On Xbox One?

If you’ve been wondering if you can play Xbox 360 games on Xbox One, worry not because with Xbox’s backward compatibility feature, you can play your Xbox 360 games on your Xbox One. 

This means that if you’ve just got a new Xbox One console and you want to play your Xbox 360 games on the console, you can with the backward compatibility feature. Although the games you can play with this feature are selected as it’s not all games that you’ll be able to play, using the feature is completely free, hence, you need not worry about paying a dime to play your Xbox 360 games on your Xbox One. 

There are various kinds of games you can play using this feature hence if you want to play your Xbox 360 games on your Xbox One, you’ll need to verify that the game is compatible with the backward compatibility feature. To verify that your game is a part of the list head to the Xbox website and go to the backward compatibility game library and search for your game. If your game is a part of the games in the library, then you’ll be able to play your Xbox 360 games on your Xbox One console. 

The only prerequisite to this is that you must be able to verify that you purchased the Xbox 360 game from a verified source and that it’s not a pirated version as there are a lot of pirated versions of some games and Xbox needs to verify that the game is genuine. 

However, if you’ve played a backward compatibility game before on your Xbox 360 or an original Xbox console and you’re not seeing it, it may be due to any of these reasons: The game isn’t yet playable on Xbox One or the Xbox series X or S, or you own the game on disc rather than owning it digitally, or you were playing it on a friend’s Xbox. 

It’s important to note that not all digital Xbox 360 games are compatible with the Xbox One console and not all Xbox 360 disc games can play on the Xbox console, however, you can verify if your game is one of the compatible games by visiting the website. If it is and it still doesn’t play on your Xbox One console, then it may be that the compatible version hasn’t been created yet for your console. 

To use the Xbox backward compatibility, you’ll need an internet connection as the game will be installed either digitally or via disc to the compatibility feature. If you also want to play your Xbox 360 game on your Xbox One with friends over the internet, you can by using the multiplayer feature which works cross-console. 

Microsoft has a record of all the digital games you purchase on your Xbox 360 and this is why it’s easy to play your digital games on the Xbox One console via the backward compatibility feature. 

How To Play Xbox 360 games on Xbox One 

The backward compatibility feature relies a lot on emulation. This means that the Xbox One doesn’t have the hardware components required to successfully run the games from previous generations hence it implements software components. 

So, instead of running your disc-based games via an emulator, Microsoft has decided to take a slightly different route to make sure that each backward-compatible game has been tweaked, packaged with an emulator, and made available for download. 

This is why once you insert a backward-compatible game into your Xbox One, your console first makes sure to verify the identity of the disc and then provides you with an option to download the updated version. This update is the entire game packaged with an emulator. 

Although the Xbox One backward compatibility feature requires you to download the modified version of each game you want to play while you won’t actually be playing the game in your physical game disc, you are still required to leave the disc inserted because Microsoft uses this as a sort of protection to make sure that you actually own the disc and to ensure that you don’t sell the disc once you’ve downloaded the backward compatible copy to your console. 

Now let’s get into how to play the Xbox 360 games on your Xbox One console. The following are the steps:

Step 1: Switch On Your Xbox One

Turn on your Xbox One and make sure the device’s software is up to date. 

Step 2: Insert The Game

Insert your backward compatible Xbox 360 or any original Xbox game. 

Step 3: Install The Compatible Version

If the game inserted is backward compatible, you’ll see the following message on your screen- “Update this for Xbox One. To play this game, you need to download a free update. It’ll take up to __ Gb of space.”. Once you see this message, go on to click on “install”. 

Step 4: Be Patient For The Download 

Be patient for the download and installation process to complete. Once the download is complete, you can go ahead to launch the game to play it. Now that you’ve installed a backward-compatible game, you’ll need to always insert the disc whenever you want to play the game so make sure to not do away with the inserted disc after installing the backward compatible version. 

Microsoft doesn’t limit you as you can install as many backward compatible Xbox 360 games on your Xbox One as long as your Xbox One has the space for it. If you run out of space and you need to delete a backward-compatible game, you can always delete it and install it whenever you want to install the game. Instead of deleting, you may also want to consider upgrading your hard drive or adding external storage to your Xbox One’s storage.