Looking at the circumstance in regards to Microsoft’s continued support for backwards compatibility on Xbox, the program is on its way to yet another platform already. After featuring games from previous systems on Xbox One and now Xbox Series X|S, the same tool is now being carried over onto xCloud. Currently, Microsoft has clear more than a dozen titles to be played via the cloud on any supported device.

But in future reference, Microsoft is adamant in further supporting older releases. Already, Microsoft has pressed on the significance of Smart Delivery for its platform not only to ensure the security of purchases to newer generations, but also the simplicity in carrying save progress to newer hardware without the extra steps on other services.

In a recent Major Nelson Podcast, Compatibility Program Lead Peggy Lo presses on the importance for backwards compatibility and the deeper reason Microsoft prioritizes preserving older titles.

As we got to working on the program, I got to realize that it was much more than that. That these games didn’t just represent like a dollar amount to somebody; it became a lot about the history of what gaming is to the fans, to the people who developed those games, and to the industry itself.

These are games that influence the way that games play today. Preserving that history has become so important to the team just so that people can continue to play these games, share them with new people, and kind of celebrate that legacy there.

Lo continues by bring examples of people returning to their beloved release more than a decade later through the feature. Most notably, Kareem Choudhry, Corporate Vice President of Xbox Cloud Gaming references his time sampling the xCloud addition before its announcement and playing Kameo for the first time in nearly 15 years and his progress is still ready for him to continue playing.

While game preservation is a treasure on Xbox, it appears Sony Interactive Entertainment is less interested in holding close to prior releases. Following the announcement of the closure for PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, and PlayStation Vita stores, Video Game Chronicles made an analysis which reveals roughly 2.2K games will be lost in time following the pulling of the plug. You can read the full report by heading here.

Do you play any backwards compatible games on Xbox?