Old games to run on Xbox One

Old Xbox 360 games will soon be able to run on the Microsoft's newer Xbox One console.

The announcement came during Microsoft's press conference at the E3 games show.

Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft's Xbox division, said backwards compatibility for older game was the number one request from console owners.

The first 100 Xbox 360 games will be made available on the console by Christmas. Games will show up in the digital library of games that people maintain on their devices.

Microsoft said many more titles would follow.

The press conference also saw it announce a tie-up with Valve on virtual reality technology. Microsoft also took the chance to show off a new version of block-building game Minecraft developed for its own HoloLens augmented reality system.

The BBC's North America technology correspondent Richard Taylor reports from the event in Los Angeles.