Microsoft has teased enough. With the launch of the New Xbox One Experience just days away, the company is finally ready to reveal the freshmen class of Xbox 360 games available through the Xbox One Backwards Compatibility program beginning November 12th. Let’s just say, reactions seem mixed.
A post on Xbox Wire provides the aforementioned list of games. Microsoft announced at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo that it’d allow Xbox One owners to insert their Xbox 360 games into their console and unlock digital versions that they can play — provided they keep their physical media. Theoretically, the feature should lead to more users abandoning the Xbox 360 and upgrading to the Xbox One, instead of Sony’s PlayStation 4 console. The PlayStation 4 forces users into subscribing to PlayStation Now to play their old games, complete with game save. The Xbox One Backwards Compatibility program is a major coup for Microsoft, with most people believing they’d never get to play their old games on a newer console.
Problem is, the games we already knew were coming make up the majority of Microsoft’s list. There are some gems, like RainbowSix Vegas, Toy Soldiers Crazy Taxi, Mass Effect, Mirror’s Edge and Borderlands. There are also some pretty major gaps. For example, only Fable 2 is present from its franchise. The same goes for Fallout 3, Just Cause 2 and Assassin’s Creed 2. Microsoft does say that it plans to bring Halo: Reach, Halo Wars, Call of Duty Black Ops and the entire Bioshock franchise to the program some time this December.
Some believe that Microsoft might have oversold the feature if this list is an accurate indication of games coming later on. It’s definitely too early to judge that, but Microsoft definitely took some wind out of its sails by announcing so much of the Xbox One Backwards Compatibility line-up ahead of time.
