One of the most requested additions to the Xbox One’s backwards compatibility list, Red Dead Redemption is now available for download and play. Folks just need to own the game digitally and find someone already following the game. Update: Not working anymore. Xbox’s Major Nelson comments on Reddit.
From a screenshot showing Rockstar’s Western available for download on an Xbox One posted at NeoGAF the news spread like wildfire, but don’t expect the game to show up in search on your Xbox One. In order to access the Red Dead Redemption page on the Xbox One you have to find someone following the game. If you look up F4hey you should be able to go to my followed games and find it.
Once there you can download the game, as long as you own it digitally. If you don’t own it digitally you’ll see “Bundle Only” in the purchase options. You can grab the Xbox 360 version over at Xbox.com for $29.99, which is what I just did.
And here we are.
If you own the game on disc, give it time. If the digital is working the disc should get a roll-out soon.
Looking through Twitter I am seeing folks reporting other games popping up the same way—Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night—but my “games I already own on other consoles” budget just got blown.
Update 2/7: Looks like Microsoft has taken measures to ruin everyone’s day. Folks on Twitter are reporting that purchasing and downloading the game for play now brings up puzzle game Hexic, which seems silly. On my end I can no longer start Red Dead Redemption as it’s been flagged as needing an update, but there is an error downloading it (likely because there isn’t really an update) and the game no longer starts. Readers note that playing offline works, so there’s that.
I suppose now we wait for an official announcement before we can play the game we were playing just fine last night.
Update 2/8: Major Nelson commented on the early leak of RDR and other games via Reddit.
Microsoft tests all Xbox 360 games with our emulator to ensure a quality experience across a breadth of titles. Due to an error, some of the games currently in test were accidentally made available. We have since removed access to those games, and apologize for any confusion this may have caused. We will have more information on upcoming releases soon.
To contact the author of this post write to fahey@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @bunnyspatial.