A curious thing is happening on theXbox One’s official storefront, as Xbox 360 backward compatible games that have long been delisted from the officialXbox Onestore are reappearing. And further, they’re available to purchase in ways that were never available prior. No justification for the changes has been provided by Xbox as of yet, but some believe this could be a change made in preparation for the upcoming launch of the Xbox Series X.
The discovery was first shared by Twitter user Bruno Costa and shared widely by Wario64. Costa first noted that many games, includingDirt 3andMidnight Club: Los Angeles, were once again available to purchase digitally from the Xbox One store. Wario64 then trolled their followers by pointing outSilent Hillis returning to Xbox One, linking to the previously delistedXbox 360 version ofSilent Hill: Downpour.
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In total, there were at least 24 differentXbox 360 games purchasable through the Xbox One store. Some are brand new to the storefront while others had been delisted for one reason or another and were returned to availability once more. It must be noted, however, that many of them have since been removed from availability once more.
Even though many games remain available on the storefront, that doesn’t necessarily mean these changes were intentional. Some of the newly available games have very high prices, which doesn’t make any sense. For example,Tom Clancy’s HAWXis $59.99 andOperation Flashpoint: Red Riveris $39.99. These listings don’t seem like they were intentionally released, making it seem like the entire thing is a big accident.
The reason why these games were suddenly made available on Xbox One isn’t clear. The most popular speculation seems to be that Microsoft is doing some sort of database update for its storefront. It could be related to backward compatibility, perhaps as Microsoft prepares for theXbox Series X launch, but there’s no evidence of a relation to the Xbox Series X other than Microsoft’s promise that hundreds of backward compatible games will be available on the platform on launch day.
Hopefully, Xbox will provide comment on the matter in the near future. Perhaps there is an ongoing effort to reintroduce backward compatibleXbox 360 gamesonto theXbox One. Perhaps it’s a step toward offering them on the Xbox Series X. Or perhaps this is just a database migration error gone awry. Either way, there’s a list of Xbox 360 games that some fans might be interested in picking up while they’re still available.
Le Tour de France 2009- $4.99
Silent Hill: Downpour- $19.99
Syndicate- $19.99
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