Microsoft is rumored to be working on a plan that will allow multi-disc Xbox 360 games to work on Xbox One systems as soon as early next year.

According to Game Spot, the key to the new technology seems to lie in backwards compatibility, with the Xbox engineering team expected to wrap up its development soon after the new year.

"We're still working on multi-disc," Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently told reporters. "Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon are some of my favorites from the 360. There's actually work in packing a multi-disc into single that requires us to go back and look at the original package on the multiple discs and reconfigure that."

Multi-disk support for Xbox 360 games is also expected to create similar possibilities for others titles to become compatible with Xbox One, such as the Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. The same could soon be possible for such titles as Game of the Year and older versions of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

The developing backwards technology is thought to stem from emulating the entire Xbox 360 operating system. That, in turn, allows Xbox 360 games to run on Xbox systems without any special or additional coding or workarounds.

Rumored to be among the biggest hurdles remaining to launching the systems is the task of securing the needed licensing agreements with development studios and publishers that would actually allow for the games to be played on the Xbox One and listed for sale on Xbox Store platforms.

Going forward, word is all Xbox Games with Gold titles will be backwards compatible for the Xbox One. The current selection of free Xbox 360 titles include Sacred 3 and Operation Flashpoint: Drago Rising. Both of those games will be free to download until the end of December, at which time they are slated to be replaced by Dirt Showdown and Deus Ex: Human Revolution.