FINAL BATCH: XBOX ONE BC
FINAL BATCH: XBOX ONE BC
On Monday June 10th, Xbox announced the final batch of Backwards Compatible titles for Xbox One. This was a bittersweet announcement, as the batch was a massive collection of long wanted titles, Xbox One X Enhancements, and other goodies, but also the end of BC titles coming to Xbox One. The BC team is now entirely focused on making sure that all the current BC titles (Original Xbox and Xbox 360) along with Xbox One games, all run perfectly and better than ever on Project Scarlett, Xbox’s next gen system. To sum it up, all titles playable on Xbox One, including OG and 360 BC titles, will be playable on Scarlett, so, the next year and a half will be focused on making sure that goal is met perfectly. Jason Ronald, head of the BC program, took to twitter after the announcements to confirm that they are moving focus onto Scarlett, but aren’t stopping their BC program, just “going dark” in his words. He also said “never say never”, when asked if more OG Xbox and 360 titles would become Backwards Compatible after Scarlett launches. To summarize, the BC team isn’t going away, they are just now solely focused on making sure all these games that they’ve made BC for Xbox One, along with Xbox One titles, are all ready and playable on Scarlett. Don’t fret BC fans, BC isn’t disappearing, just taking the next step, and sounds like we may get to revisit the idea of adding more games to the library in the future, but it’s going to be after Scarlett launches.
FAN FAVORITE 360 GAMES
The Final Batch of BC titles included eight Original Xbox games, fifteen Xbox 360 games, eight titles receiving Xbox One X Enhancements, and several OG Xbox titles receiving long lost DLC in a free update. (OG Xbox DLC was made unavailable after the OG Xbox Live servers were shut down in the early 2000’s, so this was an awesome surprise for sure.) The fifteen “Fan Favorites” Xbox 360 titles added were: Asura’s Wrath, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, Enchanted Arms, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, FarCry Classic and FarCry Instincts Predator, Infinite Undiscovery, Peter Jackson’s King Kong, Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands, Skate, Star Ocean: Last Hope, Super Puzzle Fighter 2, Syndicate, Too Human, and Unreal Tournament. That’s an absolutely killer list of long requested titles. Seeing Too Human among them is particularly wild, considering its long and troubled history, and the small fact that courts made all unsold physical copies be destroyed and digital copies pulled from storefront. Microsoft and Epic worked something out to allow the game to be relisted digitally for free, available to anyone, without cost. Since the game cannot be legally sold, giving it away is a nice legal loophole. It’s also a nice amount of fanservice by the BC team to go to the effort to get this title, and all the other 360 favorites added in this last batch.
OG XBOX GAMES
The eight Original Xbox games added to BC are: Armed and Dangerous, Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb, Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, and Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict. This is a great final batch of OG games, adding some true gems from yesteryear, and ensuring that the entire Splinter Cell saga is now playable (and X Enhanced) on Xbox One X. Although Double Agent was already added to BC lineup via its Xbox 360 version, adding the OG version ensures that all copies of the tile will be playable (besides, the OG version had a completely different multiplayer than the 360 version). Now the vast majority of all the major and cult hit Original Xbox titles, are playable on Xbox platforms going forward.
X ENHANCED 360 BC
The Final eight Xbox 360 games to receive X Enhancements are: Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts, Kameo Elements of Power, Perfect dark, Perfect Dark Zero, Viva Pinata, and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise. This batch of classic Rare games, are all upscaled to 4K on the Xbox One X, and look outstanding. If you own all of these eight games as part of Rare Replay, or own them separately, they will still be X Enhanced. All of these classic titles absolutely deserved the X treatment, and it’s great to see them get that.
OG XBOX DLC
As a final awesome gesture, the BC team went out and rescued DLC for some original Xbox games that had been unavailable for well over a decade. These DLC packs are free to owners of the games (both current owners and those who will purchase these games in the future) via free updates. Classic Star Wars titles, Armed and Dangerous, and the Splinter Cell Trilogy all get DLC content. The titles receiving DLC, and the packs they receive are as listed:
Armed and Dangerous – New Mission: Summer Home
Star Wars Battlefront – New Map: Jabba
Star Wars Battlefront II – Expansion Pack (4 new maps, 1 new hero: Kit Fisto and 1 new villain: Asajj Ventress). New Mode: Kashyyyk Assault
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – Equipment store: Yavin Station
Star Wars Republic Commando – Multiplayer Map: Hangar
Splinter Cell – 3 Mission Packs: Kola Cell, Vselka Infiltration, and Vselka Submarine
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow – 2 Map Packs (split-screen multi-player maps): Federal Bank and River Mall
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory – 2 Mission Packs (split-screen co-op missions): Nuclear Plant and UN Headquarters. 2 Map Packs (split-screen multi-player maps): Polar Base and Steel Squat