As promised, the Xbox team delivered news about Xbox One's backward compatibility as a part of the Inside Xbox program leading into E3 2019. To start, it has been confirmed that the next round of backward compatibility additions will make up what team Xbox called the "Final Wave." No further additions will be made for Xbox One, though the next-gen Project Scarlett may open new opportunities. And of course, to follow, the full Final Wave of Xbox One backward compatibility titles were revealed.
The Final Wave of backward compatibility for Xbox One features 23 different games, many of which were some of the most highly requested titles remaining. Eight of the 20 are from the original Xbox generation of games, meaning Xbox is digging deep for this wave. And, of those eight, four are Splinter Cell games, making up the entirety of Splinter Cell releases put out prior to the launch of the Xbox 360. Luckily, the Xbox 360 Splinter Cell games are already available via backward compatibility.
Four of 20 games is just scraping the surface of what's included in the Xbox One backward compatibility Final Wave, though. Here are all 23 titles Xbox gamers can look forward to playing soon:
Xbox
- Armed and Dangerous
- Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
- Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent
- Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict
Xbox One
- Asura’s Wrath
- Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
- Enchanted Arms
- Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
- Far Cry Classic
- Far Cry Instincts Predator
- Infinite Undiscovery
- Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie
- Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands
- Skate
- Star Ocean: The Last Hope
- Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
- Syndicate
- Too Human
- Unreal Tournament III
In addition to these 23 new games coming to the service, eight more games are getting the official enhanced treatment. All eight are from Rare Replay and include all three Banjo-Kazooie games, both Perfect Dark games, both Viva Pinata games, and Kameo Elements of Power.
As mentioned prior, though this marks the end of new backward compatible games for the Xbox One, the Xbox team makes clear that its next-gen console, Project Scarlett, features backward compatibility. In the official news story from Xbox about the Final Wave, Xbox clearly states, "We're excited to continue our work on Xbox compatibility across platforms and devices." With new, powerful console hardware, the possibility of wrangling the remaining Xbox games left orphaned becomes much more realistic.
In total, Xbox has made over 600 Xbox 360 and original Xbox games accessible and playable on Xbox One. All of those games will similarly be playable on the next-generation Xbox console, as promised by Phil Spencer during this year's Xbox E3 2019 press conference. Expect more information on that front as Project Scarlett's release approaches in holiday 2020.