Xbox adds over 70 classic games to its backward-compatibility library

By DeAngelo Epps November 15, 2021

During today’s Xbox 20th anniversary event, Xbox announced that 70-plus games are being added to the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S backward-compatibility libraries. It confirmed that the games support Auto HDR and many will receive resolution enhancements. On top of that, 11 of the titles are getting a frames-per-second (FPS) boost.

Since the Xbox 360, Xbox has had a preapproved library of backward-compatible games that can be played on current-generation consoles. The list of supported titles is now up to 76 with today’s announcement.

Many of the added titles are fan favorites that have been continuously requested. Those titles include the entire Max Payne, F.E.A.R, and Skate series on the Xbox One and Series X/S. The library also includes more than 20 original Xbox games including Dead or Alive Ultimate, Star Wars: Jedi Knight II, Star Wars: Starfighter, and the Otogi franchise.

Xbox confirmed that Original Xbox games will receive a resolution increase on Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One consoles connected to supported displays. The resolution increase will differ depending on the console.

4x resolution increase on Xbox Series X and Xbox One X
3x resolution increase on Xbox Series S
2x resolution increase on Xbox One S and Xbox One

The games included on the FPS boost list are:

F.E.A.R.
F.E.A.R. 3
Binary Domain
Nier
The entire Gears of War franchise
Fallout 3
Fallout: New Vegas
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Dragon Age: Origins
Dead Space, Dead Space 3
Alan Wake
Sonic Generations.

Players will also be able to toggle on and off the HDR and FPS Boost in games’ management menus. You can find a full list of backward-compatible games on the Xbox website.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

De'Angelo Epps is a gaming writer passionate about the culture, communities, and industry surrounding gaming. His work ranges…

Gaming

Is Starfield on Xbox One?

Key art for Starfield

Starfield is one of the biggest games of the year and space exploration has never looked so good (especially on a new PC with the correct settings tweaked). Released natively for PC and Xbox Series X, a lot of gamers are going to be left out of Bethesda's latest RPG — it'll never be released on PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch. But there's good news if you're still playing on a last-gen Xbox One. While Starfield isn't being released on the older console directly, there's still a way to play on Xbox One.

There are also a few other ways to play Startfield without an Xbox at all.
How to play Satrfield on Xbox One

Gaming

You don’t need an Xbox Series X to play Starfield. Here’s how

Key art for Starfield

Starfield is the highest-profile Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S game since Halo Infinite, but the game isn't locked to those two consoles. Thanks to cloud gaming and Microsoft's more open-ended mentality of making its games available on a wide variety of platforms, you don't have to own one of Microsoft's current-gen systems or have the Xbox app installed on your PC.
No, it's not on PS5 or Nintendo Switch, but if you want to play Starfield while it's at the center of the video game industry zeitgeist, here are some places where it's playable other than the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series X, and Xbox PC app.
Steam

The most obvious choice if you want to play Starfield elsewhere is to pick it up on Steam. While Microsoft does have a proprietary PC launcher of its own, Microsoft now consistently releases its own games through Valve's launcher. Bethesda joined Xbox Game Studios in 2021 and has a long history of making its games available on Steam as well, so it's not too surprising that Starfield is available on the platform.
Starfield already proving quite popular on the platform too, having peaked at 266,000 concurrent players, according to SteamDB at the time I'm writing this. If you're looking for a way to play Starfield natively on the hardware you own without using a Microsoft platform or service, this is your best option. It'll run on Steam Deck too, although that's not the only way to experience Starfield on the go.
Xbox Game Pass app on Android

Gaming

Starfield is a success. What does that mean for the future of Xbox?

A ship lands on a planet in Starfield.

Starfield was one of the most vital video game launches ever.
The last couple of years have been full of whiplash for Xbox fans, full of high highs and low lows. After a solid fall 2021 game lineup, 2022 was comparatively barren for first-party Xbox games. Microsoft then started the year on a strong note with Hi-Fi Rush’s surprise launch before crashing and burning with the disastrous release of Redfall, the first heavily marketed AAA game coming out from Bethesda after it was acquired by Microsoft. Starfield, a game that many were uneasy about due to its scope, would inadvertently become a make-or-break moment for Microsoft.
In May, I wrote that Starfield was “the most pivotal game for the future of the Xbox brand since Halo: Combat Evolved” because of what I thought was at stake if it failed. Well, Starfield just launched, and … it’s a hit. It’s not the genre-defining, industry-changing mega-RPG that some fans were lauding it as prerelease. However, it’s still an enjoyable sci-fi adventure that's receiving positive attention despite some drawbacks. And it's already earned over 1 million concurrent players across all platforms. Digital Trends gave it a three-and-a-half star review, writing, “though it can’t nearly deliver on Bethesda’s intergalactic ambitions, Starfield is an impressive space RPG filled with impactful decisions.” On Steam, over 24,000 reviews are averaging a ‘Very Positive” consensus.
While not a total stunner, Starfield hasn't derailed Xbox or caused the public to lose faith in its first-party games; in fact, it has renewed some confidence. Reassessing Xbox’s future post-Starfield, it’s clear that it’s still reliant on something it has struggled with this entire console generation: consistency.
It’s all about consistency
Despite the success of Xbox Game Pass and some excellent first-party games like Pentiment and Hi-Fi Rush, Microsoft has struggled to establish consistency across messaging, game launch cadence, and quality. That has hurt it this console generation, where it has felt like Xbox has promised more than it's delivered despite several game company acquisitions and exciting announcements. It doesn’t help that Sony and Nintendo have been at the top of their game in regard to those things in recent years.

That’s ultimately what put so much pressure on Redfall and Starfield. They needed to pay off an expensive Bethesda acquisition and usher in a steady stream of new Xbox games. Perhaps that’s why the poor quality of Redfall felt like such a slap in the face for Xbox fans. What should’ve cemented a consistent Xbox first-party output instead highlighted all of its problems. This made Xbox’s situation heading into Starfield’s launch feel dire, even more so than it actually was in reality for a branch of a megacorporation like Microsoft.
But now Starfield is here and people like it, even if it has some evident flaws. Starfield was neither the Redfall-level critical flop that would kill Xbox nor the 11/10 game some people expected. It’s just an entertaining RPG that Xbox players can lose themselves in and feel a little bit of console pride over. The vibes across the Xbox community are mostly positive right now, and Microsoft needs to maintain that feeling.
The weak first-party 2022 lineup and the rough state of Redfall left us wondering if the only thing Xbox was consistent at was disappointment, but Starfield and other recent efforts from Microsoft-owned studios indicate that this is not the case. Since Redfall, we’ve got a big Monkey Island-themed update for Sea of Thieves, an excellent remaster of Quake II, a solid Xbox Series X/S port of Age of Empires IV, and Starfield to show that Xbox’s studios are back on track. It’s up to the Xbox team to keep up that momentum after Forza Motorsport launches and the Activision Blizzard acquisition finally concludes this October.