Today during Microsoft’s 20th anniversary Xbox event, the company announced that 76 new games are being added to the Xbox backwards compatibility library, including the entire Max Payne franchise, F.E.A.R series, multiple Star Wars games, and more. Xbox also announced that some of these classics will support FPS boost and all of them will benefit from Auto HDR.
During today’s event, Peggy Lo, compatibility program lead at Xbox, announced that Microsoft was bringing more games to the Xbox backwards compatibility program. This is a bit of a surprise because in 2019 Xbox announced it had no further plans to expand the back compat library. However, it seems that continued community requests for some older games and the big 20th-anniversary celebration helped convince Microsoft to open the floodgates one more time.
Here’s the full list of games that you can now play on Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S:
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand
Aces of the Galaxy
Advent Rising
Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Make the Grade
Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Burning Earth
Bankshot Billiards 2
Beautiful Katamari
Binary Domain
Black College Football Xperience: Doug Williams Ed
Cloning Clyde
Conan
Darwinia+
Dead or Alive Ultimate
Dead or Alive 3
Dead or Alive 4
Death by Cube
Disney Universe
Disney’s Chicken Little
Elements of Destruction
F.E.A.R.
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
F.E.A.R. 3
F.E.A.R. Files
The First Templar
Gladius
Gunvalkyrie
Islands of Wakfu
Lego The Lord of the Rings
Manhunt
Max Payne
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Max Payne 3
Mini Ninjas
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
MX vs. ATV Alive
MX vs. ATV Untamed
NIER
Novadrome
Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee
Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad
Otogi: Myth of Demons
Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors
The Outfit
Outpost Kaloki X
Quake Arena Arcade
R.A.W. – Realms of Ancient War
Red Dead Revolver
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
Ridge Racer 6
Rio
Risen
Risen 2: Dark Waters
Rock of Ages
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
Scramble
Screwjumper!
Secret Weapons Over Normandy
Skate 2
SpongeBob SquarePants Underpants Slam!
SpongeBob’s Truth or Square
Star Wars Starfighter: Special Edition
Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
Switchball
Thrillville
Thrillville: Off the Rails
Time Pilot
TimeSplitters 2
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect
Toy Story Mania!
Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment
Viva Piñata: Party Animals
Warlords
Some games from the list that caught my attention include all of the Max Payne series, Timesplitters and its sequel Future Perfect, 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand, Manhunt, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, and Skate 2. Sadly, at least as of now, you still can’t buy 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand via the old Xbox marketplace. But at least if you get a disc copy you can now play it on your Xbox Series X.
All of these games will support Auto HDR on Xbox Series X/S consoles and resolution boosts across all modern Xbox consoles, including Xbox One.
Also announced today, 37 classic Xbox and Xbox 360 games are getting FPS Boost support, including some older back compat titles like all of the previous Gears of War games on Xbox 360, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Fallout: New Vegas. And, interestingly, some of these games will support FPS Boost via cloud streaming. As always, Auto HDR and FPS Boost can be toggled on or off via the game’s compatibility settings in the Xbox dashboard. Here’s the full list of games getting FPS Boost support
This huge dump of old games and the continued support of FPS Boost for older titles is yet another example of how Microsoft continues to run circles around Sony and Nintendo when it comes to supporting their back catalog of games. While Nintendo continues to make it hard to revisit classic titles through above board means, Xbox is out here doing more to keep old games playable years and years after their release. And while they could of course do more, it’s still a nice change of pace compared to how most publishers and gaming companies handle retro games on older platforms.
