Yeah, I know. This is some really terrible news to start the weekend with. VP of Microsoft Gaming Studios, Phil Spencer, in an interview with GameSpot mentioned that those who want to enjoy their Xbox Live Arcade games should hold onto their 360 systems. Though these games could easily all run on the Xbox One’s hardware, they want you to keep your 360 hooked up to the television so that the two systems can co-exist. I find this to be a major downside to the people that they could potentially convert into Xbox owners. I feel bad for the people who end up buying an Xbox One and don’t have a 360. They won’t be able to enjoy all of those classic games!

Spencer is quoted saying, “The box is not backward compatible and we think for somebody who invests in a large digital library that you want to keep your [Xbox 360].”

I don’t know about anyone else, but I invest the money into those games because I expect to be able to port them over to the next system along with my gamertag and Xbox Live account. If your 360 dies in 10 years and they stop producing the system, you may never be able to play those games again. This is terrible news, but there is talk from Spencer of many new games coming out for the 360 (XBLA and otherwise) after the launch of Xbox One. I just really don’t see why they would get rid of backwards compatibility and Xbox Arcade as well. I was really looking forward to having all the Sonic games on my Xbox One. It looks like emulators will remain the best option for retro gaming in the future.