Microsoft shows off Gears 4 and Halo 5 at E3

Microsoft had to come to E3 with some pretty big announcements. And it delivered.

The most audible reaction of the conference came when Xbox head Phil Spencer announced that the Xbox One will be backward compatible with Xbox 360 games. You’ll be able to access your digital collection of 360 games on Xbox One, as well as put discs in and download games you already own. There will be around 100 games supported when backward compatibility is introduced at the end of the year.

Microsoft said that there are no barriers to this; all developers need to do is give the green light, and Microsoft will take care of the rest. And it wasn’t going to pass up on the opportunity to finally return a shot at Sony. “We won’t charge you to play the games you already own,” Microsoft’s Mike Ybarra said.