Monday, November 15 marks the 20th anniversary of the Xbox console. In celebration of twenty years of video games on Xbox consoles, the team at Xbox held a special digital event online. The Xbox 20th Anniversary Celebration mixed nostalgic looks back on moments in Xbox's history with several exciting announcements. One of those announcements is that Xbox is bringing back 76 classic Xbox games through backward compatibility, which are now available to purchase and play on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S platforms.
The list of 76 games includes many great franchises from Xbox's past, some that will have Xbox fans wondering how they weren't included in the backward compatibility program before. Examples include the F.E.A.R. franchise, the Max Payne trilogy, Star Wars games like Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast and Starfighter: Special Edition, several Dead or Alive games, and many other exciting titles.
New to Xbox backward compatibility are games that many may have otherwise been lost to time. For example, Dark Souls developer From Software's Otogi and Otogi 2 hack-and-slash action games, Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption predecessor Red Dead Revolver, cult shooter Timesplitters 2, and tactical RPG Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment have all made the list. Xbox has clearly done its due diligence to invite all of its partners to help bring back a diverse range of Xbox and Xbox 360 games for new audiences.
The Xbox backwards compatibility program isn't just about bringing back classic games, however. It's also about improving their performance on modern platforms. All of today's new original Xbox additions will receive a resolution increase. Resolution will jump 2x on Xbox One, 3x on Xbox Series S, and 4x on Xbox One X and Xbox Series X. 11 of today's new games will also receive an FPS Boost, bringing their frame rate up to 60fps (26 existing backward compatible games are also getting this FPS boost).
As some might recall, Xbox officially pressed pause on the backward compatibility program two years past, due to challenges associated with licensing and compatibility. Consider today one last brief push from the program. Xbox says that this will be the "latest and final" group of Xbox and Xbox 360 games added to backwards compatibility.
While it's disappointing that the program is ending, it's also exciting that Xbox was able to put together this one last group of 76 game releases for Xbox's 20th Anniversary. Few expected any additional games to be released when the program was put on hold. And never say never, because maybe publishers and license holders will be more open to bringing their Xbox and Xbox 360 games back to availability in another 5 or 10 years.