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New Xbox One update brings Xbox 360 backwards compatibility

By Salehuddin Bin Husin - on 11 Nov 2015, 9:30am

New Xbox One update brings Xbox 360 backwards compatibility

If you've not invested in an external HDD for the Xbox One, now would be a good time to do so.

Modern consoles aren't static beasts like consoles from a decade ago. During the PS2/GameCube/Dreamcast era, hooking a console up to the internet was not only a hassle, it was only usually used for playing games. Adding in new features to a console was pretty much unthinkable back then as even browsing the internet on them was a tedious affair. We still remember taking out our Official Dreamcast Magazine GD-ROMs whenever we wanted to use the Dreamcast's browser.

Nowadays, consoles not only get updated every few months, they even get features that are unplanned at launch. The latest one will be the Xbox One's update, due tomorrow. It not only brings a better, faster and streamlined Xbox One dashboard (called the New Xbox One Experience) but also one of the most anticipated features for a console in this generation; backwards compatibility. While those in the Xbox Previews program have had the feature since E3 earlier this year, this is will be the first time the feature will be available for everybody to enjoy.

Starting November 12, the Xbox One will be compatible with any Xbox 360 game on the compatibility list.

You'll need the game disc (if you didn't buy digital), you'll still need the space for the game on the HDD as the Xbox One will need to re-download a digital version of the game that's been specifically packaged for the Xbox One emulator. If you did go the digital route however, the games will show up in the Ready to Install category of the My Games and Apps section. From there, it's just a matter of downloading what game you want and then playing them once the download's completed.

Weirdly, the quality of the Xbox 360 games compatible in the first wave seem to be all over the place. On one hand, it has some of the Xbox 360's best games like Gears of War 3 and Fallout 3 but lacks other great hits like Halo: Reach, Skyrim or Red Dead Redemption, some of the most requested games on the Xbox forums. Microsoft has commented in the past that most Xbox 360 games are compatible (needing only on the publishers to give permission for them to be included in the compatibility program), which is why most gamers expected the first wave of titles to blow them away with quality games.

Here's the full list if you're interested:

Some really weird choices on that list. Blood of the Werewolf over titles like Rocket Knight or Castlevania HD? Doom and Doom II are in, but why no Doom 3?

Alternatively, you can view the whole list on the main Xbox site, which is also the place you can find out what new games are incoming for the backwards compatibility program.

Sony still has no plans on bringing backwards compatibility to the PS4. Instead, they're betting on their streaming PS Now service as an alternative, which still hasn't launched locally yet.

Source: Xbox (via Polygon)

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