Microsoft recently announced that it was going to be pushing out an update that allows Xbox One players to play their beloved Xbox 360 games on their shiny next-gen machine without any fuss – you simply stick your disc in the drive or re-download the game from the Xbox Live Marketplace and away you go. Happy times.
Oh, but you need to be a member of the Preview Program. Oh the joy.
Preview Program members get early access to new features and the like, so naturally they’re able to test out the backwards compatibility before others are. However, there is a cheeky little workaround that’ll allow us regular, non-preview folks to enjoy our last-gen games on our new-gen machines.
Step 1 – Boot up your Xbox One (duh)
Step 2 – Go to your friends list. If any of your friends are preview program members and are playing one of the original Xbox 360 games on their Xbox One, simply click on the game they’re playing then follow the prompt to “view in store.”
Step 3 – Providing you own the game, you can hit the “install” tab and – shazam! You’ll be downloading your old-games in no time.
Now, this method does rely on you having someone in your friends list that is a preview program member. Thankfully, then, there is an alternative which may actually be a little easier to use.
Step 1 – As above (duh)
Step 2 – Hit up the Twitch Xbox One app.
Step 3 – Scroll along until you find somebody streaming a last-gen Xbox 360 game
Step 4 – “View in store” and the hit the “install” button. Providing you own the game already, of course…
Obviously these methods rely on you already owning the game digitally rather than on-disc, but it’s something, eh?
How long this will work for is a mystery, so enjoy it while you can as Microsoft may get wise to the fact that a lot more people are enjoying the Xbox One’s backwards compatibility than there should be.