Back at E3 2015, Microsoft made the announcement that backwards compatibility would be coming to the Xbox One later in the year, allowing for players to play select Xbox 360 games, with a larger list of games to come later. Major Nelson tweeted out that Phil Spencer has announced November 12th, 2015 to be the date that the backwards compatibility update and new user interface will hit the Xbox One.
Xbox fans mark your calendars: @XboxP3 just revealed new Xbox One experience & back compat start launching Nov. 12 for all Xbox One owners
— Larry Hryb (@majornelson) October 27, 2015
The backwards compatibility update was announced to be coming in November at Gamescom 2015, with a list of games announced in the preview phase of the program. Players fortunate enough to be a part of the preview program were able to play 360 versions of Gears of War, Borderlands, and a multitude of Rare titles, along with a handful of others. Microsoft announced that the backwards compatibility list would only be getting larger as time went on and demand was noticed. According to Microsoft, there will be hundreds of titles to play when the feature launches on November 12th, with far more titles added over the coming months. The dashboard update also comes along with this, adding more simplified commands and a Community feature (which the PlayStation 4 has also recently added).
Source: Larry Hryb’s Twitter