While Sony PlayStation sells itself on big exclusives, Microsoft’s Xbox console has been relying on the value of its Xbox Game Pass and its more extensive efforts in backwards compatibility to sustain sales of the Xbox Series X & S through their first year.
Both new consoles play essentially every game from the last generation (PS4/XB1). However Microsoft has the advantage of being able to play several hundred titles from the 360 era and several dozen from the original Xbox era via backwards compatibility – a program that sees old games updated to be compatible with the new hardware.
In a handful of cases, these are also ‘Enhanced’ to make proper use of the new hardware’s capabilities. This week the company also touted that they had just added a further 70+ games to the program.
Trouble is, hidden in a press release announcing this bumper release of titles, it was revealed that these will be the last as licensing and legal constraints means it can no longer add any more games:
“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. Thank you for being part of this journey with us.”
IGN subsequently confirmed with Xbox that this is the final addition to the backward compatible catalog.
