Starting on Thursday, you will be able to play 104 games on your Xbox One that were previously only available on the Xbox 360. Games include Fable II, Fallout 3, Gears of War games and more. All of this is free of charge.
Microsoft previously announced this feature at E3, promising a hundred games at first and then a hundred more to follow later. The company is delivering on its promise, even though some popular titles aren’t included in this first batch.
Here’s how it’s going to work. If you bought a game directly on your Xbox 360 in the online store, the game will automatically be added to your game library and become available to download. If you have a DVD version of the game, you can put it in your Xbox One and play the game, like an Xbox One game.
Behind the scene, Microsoft has worked hard to develop patches for each of these games. When you put the DVD in your Xbox One, your console will download a patch to make it playable on your Xbox One.
The company already announced some of the titles in the next batch, such as Halo Reach, Halo Wars, Call of Duty: Black Ops 1, Bioshock, Bioshock 2, Bioshock Infinite and Skate 3.
On Thursday, Microsoft is also releasing a big software update for the Xbox One with a new, faster user interface. There aren’t a lot of new features beside backwards compatibility as Cortana should make it to the Xbox One next year. It will look more like the Xbox app for Windows 10 and less like Windows 8.
It remains to be seen whether backwards compatibility will be a strong argument when it comes to holiday sales for the Xbox One. But it’s nice to see that Microsoft is adding this feature for free.
Here’s the full list:
A Kingdom for Keflings
A World of Keflings
Alien Hominid HD
Assassin’s Creed II
Asteroids & Deluxe
Banjo Kazooie: N n B
Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Tooie
BattleBlock Theater
Bejeweled 2
Bellator: MMA Onslaught
Beyond Good & Evil HD
Blood of the Werewolf
BloodRayne: Betrayal
Borderlands
Call of Juarez Gunslinger
Castle Crashers
Castlestorm
Centipede & Millipede
Condemned
Crazy Taxi
Deadliest Warrior: Legends
Defense Grid
DiRT 3
DiRT Showdown
Discs of Tron
Doom
Doom II
Dungeon Siege III
Earthworm Jim HD
Fable II
Fallout 3
Feeding Frenzy 2
Gears of War
Gears of War 2
Gears of War 3
Gears of War: Judgment
Golden Axe
Halo: Spartan Assault
Hardwood Backgammon
Hardwood Hearts
Hardwood Spades
Heavy Weapon
Hexic HD
Ikaruga Arcade
Jetpac Refuelled
Joy Ride Turbo
Just Cause 2
Kameo
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game
LEGO Star Wars: TCS
Lode Runner
LUMINES LIVE!
Mass Effect
Metal Slug 3
Metal Slug XX
Might & Magic Clash of Heroes
Mirror’s Edge
Missile Command
Monday Night Combat
Monkey Island 2: SE
Monkey Island: SE
Ms. Splosion Man
Mutant Blobs Attack
N+
NBA JAM: On Fire Edition
NiGHTS into dreams…
OF: Dragon Rising
Pac-Man C.E.
PAC-MAN CE DX+
Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark Zero
Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds
Pinball FX
Plants vs. Zombies
Prince of Persia
Putty Squad
R-Type Dimensions
Rayman 3 HD
Sacred Citadel
Sega Vintage Collection: Alex Kidd & Co.
Sega Vintage Collection: Golden Axe
Sega Vintage Collection: Monster World
Sega Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage
Shadow Complex
Sonic CD
Sonic The Hedgehog
Sonic The Hedgehog 2
Sonic The Hedgehog 3
Super Meat Boy Arcade
Supreme Commander 2
The Stick of Truth
Tom Clancy’s RainbowSix Vegas
Tom Clancy’s RainbowSix Vegas2
Torchlight Arcade
Toy Soldiers Arcade
Toy Soldiers: Cold War
Tron: Evolution
Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon
Viva Piñata
Viva Piñata: TIP
Wolfenstein 3D
Zuma