Phil Spencer on Xbox One backwards compatibility solution

Team's running Xbox 360 OS on Xbox One, while fooling console into thinking it's playing an X1 title.

Xbox's Phil Spencer has given a bit more detail on the logistics of making the Xbox One/Xbox 360 backwards compatibility possible, saying it'a case of pulling the wool over the eyes of both systems.

"The team took the approach of effectively running the whole hardware OS that was running on the 360 hardware on the Xbox One," Spencer <a href="http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox-ones-backwards-compatibility-works-because-its-tricking-your-360-games/">explained<a> to Edge.

"So when you boot the games, it literally boots up the operating system of the Xbox 360 - which is why you can play with Live and everything else. That was the most difficult thing."

He went on to clarify how, and why, a download version of the game was necessary.

"It's an Xbox One copy of the exact same game so that it shows up as an Xbox One game. That way [...] it shows the game ID and everything else."