Backwards compatibility may have come and gone, but one of Microsoft's higher-ups has hinted that the ability to play the Xbox 360 library could be in the future for its next-gen counterpart.

A Microsoft representative has confirmed that the company is thinking about the possibility for the Xbox One to play Xbox 360 titles in order to make it more appealing in the next-gen console race, Kotaku reports. At Microsoft's Build developer conference, partner development lead Frank Savage held a discussion and Q&A session with its audience members in attendance.

"Are there plans for an Xbox 360 emulator on Xbox One?" one audience member asked. "There are, but we’re not done thinking them through yet, unfortunately," Savage replied. "It turns out to be hard to emulate the PowerPC stuff on the X86 stuff. So there’s nothing to announce, but I would love to see it myself."

Backwards compatibility is always a welcome addition to any console. Nintendo has been the most consistent when it comes to offering backwards compatibility to its systems: the Wii U can play Wii titles, the Wii was able to play GameCube games, the Nintendo 3DS can play the old DS library and older versions of the Nintendo DS were able to play Game Boy Advance cartridges. The first generation of PlayStation 3 consoles were able to run PlayStation 2 titles, despite many of them improperly playing in this format. Due to the inconsistencies of the PS3's ability to play PS2 titles, Sony decided to scrap backwards compatibility from future PS3 consoles and didn't bother to include backwards compatibility with the PlayStation 4 at all.

Unfortunately, Microsoft looking into the ability to play Xbox 360 games on Xbox One does not necessarily mean you would be able to simply load your 360 discs into your Xbox One to play them. Microsoft could choose to resell certain pieces of the Xbox 360 library as digital downloads, which is how Sony currently allows you to enjoy PSOne and PS2 titles on the PlayStation 3 and 4. Until Microsoft has more to offer though, we'll just have to hope the thinking they're doing in Redmond soon becomes acting.

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