“If you own these titles, whether you have the disc sitting around or digitally, they’ll automatically show up in your games library and, in many cases, more than double or triple your available games to play on Xbox One”. The heavier gamer looking for a few action will be able to relive games including Gears of War 1, 2 and 3, Borderlands, Just Cause 2, Mass Effect and Fable II. Microsoft promises more to be added in the future, specifically naming Halo Reach, Skate 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and all three BioShock games.
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Also: “New Xbox One Experience” is Microsoft’s way of saying “Windows 10 for Xbox One”, meaning the whole backward-compatibility thing’s going to run on top of the Windows 10 kernel. You can play with people who are either playing Gears of via backwards compatibility on Xbox One or on Xbox 360. It said that not all Xbox 360 games will be initially available, but gradually Microsoft will revise the list of compatible games. These codes will come via a message on your Xbox One where you will be able to redeem it for your free games.
Instead of downplaying its November 12 Xbox One update, or even trying to moderate expectations, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has been hyping it to the moon.
Backward compatibility gives the Xbox One a feature that the PlayStation 4 doesn’t have.
Why this matters: As much as Microsoft has supported PC gaming with updates to the DirectX API, PC gamers are quite familiar with Microsoft’s other shortcomings: the Games for Windows DRM scheme, for example, and the woeful game offerings on the Windows Store. And while the list was indeed revealed today, it’s a bit longer than what we were expecting. However, the official list should be released by the launch of the Backwards Compatibility next week. Although the first sequel is yet to be included, the original is awesome and we can’t wait to play it on Xbox One.
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Will you miss the use of gestures on the Xbox One dashboard? The titles mentioned here are but a small subset of the extensive list of games that will be playable on November 12.
