Microsoft Rolls Out New Xbox One Experience, Bringing Windows 10 And Backwards Compatibility November 12th

The New Xbox One Experience has been available to Preview members for well over a month, and brings with it a Windows 10-based user interface, increased versatility and of course faster performance. You’ll also find additional social content, improved game experiences, notifications (for things like party invites, unlocked achievement and friends’ activities) and the ability to see which of your friends are logged in to Xbox Live and what games they are playing. You can even use just your voice to compose and reply to messages when playing your favorite games. Unfortunately, full [official] Cortana integration will have to wait until next year, although you can enable it early if you enter in a few “cheat codes.”

Other new features include powerful Game Hubs, which allow you to follow all of your favorite games and developers and compared stats and achievements with your pals. There’s a laundry list of other niceties including a new Community area, a revamped Store that allows you to easily search for games and related content, and a redesigned OneGuide.

But perhaps the biggest addition with the November update is backwards compatibility for select Xbox 360 games. That’s right, you’ll be able to play some of your favorite Xbox 360 games on your Xbox One. If you’ve played the supported Xbox 360 games in the past, all of your game saves, add-ons and achievement will migrate over to your Xbox One. In addition, you’ll be able to take advantage of Xbox One-exclusive features like Game DVR, Screenshots, and Windows 10 streaming with your “old” gaming favorites.

Microsoft says that over 100 Xbox 360 games will be supports on the Xbox One by the end of this year, and we should see that number swell as we stretch in to 2016.