Microsoft celebrated 20 years of Xbox today with a special stream. During said stream the company provided a variety of different announcements, one of which was the addition of over 70 games to the catalog of backward compatibility titles, including Skate 2, the entire Max Payne series, Binary Domain, and more.
While the announcement garnered quite a bit of excitement from fans, there’s a bit of small print that’s not nearly as good of an announcement. Based on a press release from Microsoft, and reported by Windows Central, it looks like this will be the final wave of games to hit backward compatibility.
In the release, Peggy Lo, Xbox compatibility program lead, says “While we continue to stay focused on preserving and enhancing the art form of games, we have reached the limit of our ability to bring new games to the catalog from the past due to licensing, legal and technical constraints.”
Despite hundreds of games being available through backward compatibility, it’s still sad to see the initiative come to an end. There’s still a variety of fan-favorite games that many would like to see be made compatible, like Jet Set Radio Future or Brute Force. Still, you certainly can’t fault Microsoft for the wide array of titles it’s made available so far.
The company has certainly made a case for Xbox having one of the largest game catalogs around. It’s still possible that Microsoft could return to backward compatibility one day, but for now, it certainly looks like things are ending here.
The 70-plus backward compatible titles weren’t nearly the only announcement Xbox had to share today. The biggest news out of the event was undoubtedly the surprise launch of Halo Infinite’s multiplayer, which can be played in beta right now on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The event also gave a quick sneak peek at the Halo live-action TV series, and a new Xbox Vault website announced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
