Don’t Expect Too Many Original Xbox Games Through Xbox One’s Backward Compatibility Program

One of Microsoft's bigger announcements during its E3 press conference a couple of weeks ago is that it would be bringing original Xbox games to the Xbox One via backward compatibility, complete with touch-ups to make them look better than ever. That said, there's still a question of just how many games we'll see in the program.

We already know two titles, Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge and the party game Fuzion Frenzy, have been confirmed, but no other titles have been mentioned yet. There's a reason for that, though.

During an interview with GameSpot, Microsoft's Dave McCarthy made references to Xbox head Phil Spencer's previous comments that the Xbox backward compatibility library wouldn't be as extensive as the Xbox 360's, which is over 300 games. But there are some big titles coming.

"We have multiple games up and running – we just decided to tease the first one(s)," he noted. "There will be a library of games for sure."

That said, not every popular hit from the era will make the cut, since, obviously, some games will be limited due to expired licenses. But McCarthy did note that it will be extensive, but stopped just short confirming how extensive. It's "too early to say," he explained. But the team is hard at work on offering as many first-generation games as possible, including some from third-party companies.

Spencer is playing a big part in the backward compatibility program, McCarthy noted, as he has an understanding with fans being excited about older games coming to the system. Again, it just depends what Microsoft can put together, and what kind of touch-ups we can expect from each title.

Some may be givens, like Blinx and Blinx 2, as well as the possible earlier Forza MotorSport games and maybe even Project Gotham Racing 1 and 2. But we're kind of holding out our hopes for the likes of Panzer Dragoon Orta and Burnout 3: Takedown, just because they were amongst the best games that the system had to offer. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

The first Xbox backward compatible titles should drop sometime this fall.