Microsoft expects a ‘pretty massive migration’ from 360 to Xbox One this Christmas

Many existing Xbox 360 owners who have been waiting to upgrade to Xbox One will do so this Christmas.

That’s the prediction of Xbox global marketing boss Aaron Greenberg who has told GameSpot that the tens of millions of existing 360 players could be a big boost in Xbox One’s attempt to close the gap on PS4.

We’re going to be the only next-gen console delivering backwards compatibility,” he stated. If you own these titles, whether you have the disc sitting around or digitally, they’ll automatically show up in your games library and, in many cases, more than double or triple your available games to play on Xbox One. I think it’s a huge benefit.

There’s tens of millions of Xbox 360 fans that are out there that are still playing on Xbox 360 and they’re waiting for the right time and the right reason to migrate over to Xbox One. Whether they’ve been waiting for the first true next-gen Halo with Halo 5 or if they’ve been waiting for solutions like backwards compatibility, we do expect to see a pretty massive migration this holiday of those fans.

And being able to continue to get the value in the game purchase you’ve invested and take that value with you to Xbox One is the key idea behind that and we’re excited to deliver that for fans.”

Sony reported 4m PS4 unit sales in its last quarter, while Microsoft said that it sold 2m consoles – both Xbox One and Xbox 360 – in the same period. Microsoft hasn’t confirmed Xbox One sales numbers in nearly a year.