One of the biggest gripes gamers had about the Xbox One when it first came out was that it wasn’t backwards compatible. If you spent years building a collection of Xbox 360 games, you couldn’t play them on the new system.
Today at Microsoft’s keynote event at E3, Phil Spencer — the head of Xbox — announced that Xbox One will soon be backwards compatible with old 360 games. “We won’t charge you to play the games you already own,” Spencer told the crowd.
The roll out should be complete by the holiday season, when “one hundred games will be supported,” according to Microsoft. There is currently a preview starting today for certain Xbox preview members.
Here’s how it will work, according to Microsoft:
The digital titles that you own and are part of the Back Compat game catalog will automatically show up in the “Ready to Install” section on your Xbox One. For disc-based games that are a part of the Back Compat game catalog, simply insert the disc and the console will begin downloading the game to your hard drive. After the game has finished downloading, you will still need to keep the game disc in the drive to play.
Here are some of the initial titles for the roll out:
Banjo Kazooie: N n B
Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Tooie
BattleBlock Theater
Defense Grid
Geometry Wars Evolved
Hexic HD
Jetpac Refuelled
Kameo
Mass Effect
Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark Zero
Small Arms
Super Meat Boy
Toy Soldiers
Toy Soldiers: Cold War
Viva Piñata
Viva Piñata: TIP
I can’t wait to play Red Dead Redemption on my Xbox One. I’m PUMPED.
Your move, Playstation.