Current Xbox boss Phil Spencer took over at the top of the Xbox tree way back in 2014, and one of his most memorable — and arguably important — moments came the following year during a Microsoft E3 showcase. Eight years later, he isn't the only Xbox exec to remember it.
During E3 2015 Phil dropped the mic with his announcement of Xbox 360 backwards compatibility. Back then Xbox One didn't work with Xbox 360 games at all, and this reveal marked a huge moment in the trajectory of Phil's Xbox leadership. He and the team were keen to bring existing libraries forward to modern consoles.
That philosophy carried over to Xbox Series X|S, and three years into this generation, Xbox's Aaron Greenberg has commented on the famous announcement. The Xbox exec admits that he "still gets chills from this" over eight years on from the big reveal.
We remember it fondly, and to be honest, hearing the reaction in that video clip makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It's a reaction you could only get at a live E3 showcase, and Xbox fans in the room at the time must have been buzzing when the surprise announcement was dropped.
To this day we still put loads of time into Xbox 360 games on our modern systems, so we very much still use and appreciate this feature all these years later. We're so glad Phil came in and changed the course of Xbox for the better!