Microsoft has added over 70 Xbox 360 and original Xbox games to its backward compatibility program on Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One. It's also enabled FPS Boost for 37 more titles and has begun rolling out the technology to Xbox Cloud Gaming.
The announcement was made during Microsoft's Xbox 20th Anniversary Celebration show and continues the company's commitment to preserving games that span Xbox's 20-year history.
Xbox owners can now enjoy the entire Max Payne and F.E.A.R. franchises, along with the whole Skate franchise as Skate 2 has been added. More than 20 original Xbox titles are also playable, including Dead or Alive Ultimate, Star Wars: Jedi Knight 2, and the Otogi franchises.
If you own these games on disc or digitally, they'll now be available to play, with the majority open to purchase through the Microsoft Store.
As we've seen with previous backward compatible titles, every game added will benefit from upgraded visuals and Auto HDR on displays that support it. Original Xbox games will benefit from a 4x resolution increase on Xbox Series X and Xbox One X, a 3x resolution increase on Xbox Series S, and a 2x resolution increase on Xbox One S and Xbox One.
Titles that support FPS Boost will also allow games previously locked at 30fps to run at 60fps. Binary Domain, Nier, the entire Gears of War franchise, and all three F.E.A.R. games will benefit from FPS Boost, including many more.
For those who like to play Xbox games via the cloud, 34 titles will benefit from FPS Boost, including Fallout 4, Fallout 76, and The Evil Within 2.
Of course, players can toggle FPS Boost and the Auto HDR feature on or off by heading to the 'Manage Game' section if you'd like to play each title without any enhancements.
Analysis: keeping old games alive is important
Microsoft's commitment to backward compatibility is admirable. Video games can often become inaccessible as hardware moves on and digital storefronts close, a trend that we've seen occur in the console gaming space for far too long.
With Microsoft's latest console now supporting every generation of Xbox, long-forgotten classics can be replayed and discovered once again, and often look and play better than ever before.
Microsoft's backward compatibility program has also shown its competitors like Sony and Nintendo that consumers value playing the games they already own instead of having to pay for remasters and remakes. It's also an essential step in video game preservation and stops games from being lost to the annals of time.
To celebrate Xbox's 20th anniversary, we've been reminiscing about Microsoft's big bulky box and our favorite memories, games and moments. It might not have been the greatest console ever made, but there's no doubt that Xbox has had a massive impact on the gaming industry as a whole.
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