In a recent interview with IGN, Microsoft’s Albert Penello was asked questions about the next-generation of consoles. While Penello said that he doesn’t believe the current generation of consoles are near their end, but compatibility will be maintained. Penello stated..
“That’s the question we’ll have to see how it goes. I mean, part of it is, this is a grand new experiment that both us and Sony are on with this concept. And right now, we have to sort of build trust that the stuff you’re buying will work, that this ecosystem will make sense for people, for developers, and that is what will inform what happens next.
“But I think there will always be step changes in technology. I don’t think we’ve ever said that console generations go away because of this idea. But I do think that it changes the nature of how you think about compatibility, which has always been an afterthought for the most part on consoles… there have been some who have done a great job of it, but we’re doubling down on it, going back even further. And Phil said this a lot… we’re making a huge effort for backward compatibility. A lot of the stuff you saw, the tools that we are doing for 360, are tools that were necessary to make Xbox One, S, and X games compatible. We’re building a lot of that strength in software to do that.”
