"Xbox One hardware is not compatible with Xbox 360 games," a representative from Microsoft told us in response to a question about downloading games from Xbox One's marketplace. "We designed Xbox One to play an entirely new generation of games—games that are architected to take full advantage of state-of-the-art processors and the infinite power of the cloud. We care very much about the investment people have made in Xbox 360 and will continue to support it with a pipeline of new games and new apps well into the future."

This means that the nearly 1,000 games currently available for the Xbox 360 will be unavailable to Xbox One users, and it instantly puts the Xbox One’s library at a significant disadvantage compared to what the PlayStation 4 is capable of. Using streaming technology – the same sort of cloud that Microsoft uses – the PS4 could conceivably beam any game ever released on any model of PlayStation to the new console. Granted, the technology is completely different, but the hows and whys won’t matter to gamers.

The news also marks what could be a fundamental shift for Xbox Live Marketplace. Although Microsoft hasn’t gone to quite the same lengths to mine its past library as Sony and Nintendo have, there are hundreds of original Xbox titles available to download to the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Marketplace today. Microsoft’s early library is nowhere near as robust as its competitors, but the Xbox 360 library is filled with plenty of hits that will now be lost to those on the Xbox One. Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/the-xbox-one-wont-play-360-games-even-digitally/#ixzz2UPRvKrfk Follow us: @digitaltrends on Twitter | digitaltrendsftw on Facebook