Phil Spencer hints at backward compatibility news in August

The next Xbox Series X showcase seems set to go down in August, and Xbox head Phil Spencer has given an interesting tease of what awaits.

While a guest on the Same Brain podcast, Spencer was discussing the push for higher framerates that will be available on the upcoming Xbox Series X with the hosts. While doing so, he moved the conversation on how that ability for improved framerates will also be relevant to older Xbox games.

“The [backward compatibility] team for us, they’re like our ninjas in the backroom,” said Spencer. “They do amazing work. Without spoiling too much, seeing some of the framerate work they’ve been able to do on our back-compat games, to up the framerate on exiting games—it’s not normal in consoles that when I buy a new console, my old games actually play, and they play better. As we get to continue to [talk] more on that, I think people will be impressed with the work that that team has done.”

That last comment—talking more about what the back-compat team is working on in the lead up to the Xbox Series X—then lead into a tantalizing tease.

“I’m encouraged to be able to talk more about it,” Spencer continued. “Should be August. I think August we’ll have more to say on that.”

We’ve heard that the Xbox team was planning for another even in August, and Spencer’s comments would lead one to believe that part of that will be showing off the Xbox Series X’s prowess for playing older games. Will it just be about showcasing how some of the games that are already playable will look and run even better? Or could we perhaps also be getting the first new list of additions to the back-compat program since it went on hiatus last year?