Interview: Phil Spencer wants to see Xbox 360 games running on PC

Xbox chief Phil Spencer joins Microsoft's Senior Leadership Team

Xbox chief Phil Spencer joins Microsoft's Senior Leadership Team

Among other discussions, Xbox head Phil Spencer said during a recent interview that he'd like to be able to play Xbox 360 games on PC.

Since Microsoft's stellar engineers made Xbox One backwards compatibility a reality, many of us have been wondering what other surprises could the Xbox team have up their collective sleeves. After all, Phil Spencer himself conceded during the reveal that they weren't sure it was possible to make Xbox 360 games run on Xbox One.

Given the prowess of Xbox's platform engineers, it seems realistic that the X360 emulator could run on PCs as well. Phil Spencer seems to agree, stating that its development is a simple case of priorities.

Gizmodo Brazil asked about the possibility of seeing original Xbox games on the Xbox One. During his response, Phil Spencer said that he'd not only like to see original Xbox games on Xbox One but also Xbox 360 games on PC (via Microsoft Translate):

..."[Getting original Xbox games on Xbox One] is something I want to do. It is a matter of priority. I would love to have the ability to play Xbox 360 on PC at some point too, so we have different things we have to think when we plan these things. But it would be great to have support for original Xbox games. So yes, I want to do it, but we have many other things we want to do well. People fight with me for not having background music (laughs), so we have much work to do. Which is great! It's great to have that feedback.

Phil Spencer also teased the backwards compatibility line-up, slated for a reveal this November when the New Xbox One Experience goes public.

..."I won't reveal the secrets. Wait a month! You will have to wait a month, or else we won't have big surprises. I think people will be pleasantly surprised with some of the games that will be available."...

Gizmodo Brazil also asked about the possibility of a Xbox hand-held, akin to the Nintendo DS. Phil Spencer reiterated previous statements that their interest lies in mobile devices that people already own, citing Minecraft Pocket Edition in the process:

..."For us, I think we'll move on to look at mobiles and one of the things we've done in this direction in the last year was the acquisition of Minecraft. One of the things that motivates us with Minecraft is how it is strong in mobile devices. I think that for us it is more advantageous to focus on mobile devices that people already have and bring the Xbox experience to these devices. Whether through work we're doing with Windows 10 or other places that we can put our games."......"We will not make a portable dedicated to games, we'll think of something that works on mobile devices that run games."...

Phil Spencer stated in the past that Xbox One game streaming to Windows 10 Mobile is on the cards. Continuum also opens up some cool possibilities for portable play. For example, Minecraft Windows 10 Edition switches between controller, keyboard, mouse and touch inputs in an instant, and seems like a good fit for Continuum gaming on an external monitor.

You can find the full interview here, if you don't speak Portuguese, you can run it through Bing Translator over here.

Source: Gizmodo Brazil via Neowin

Jez Corden
Co-Managing Editor

Jez Corden is a Managing Editor at Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking exclusive news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem while being powered by tea. Follow on Twitter @JezCorden and listen to his XB2 Podcast, all about, you guessed it, Xbox!