The team at Xbox hasn't been spending its weekend watching TV and catching the summer rays! Instead, it's been quietly transitioning some classic Xbox 360 games to the Microsoft Store, in a move that should ultimately make buying backwards compatible titles much easier moving forward.
So, what exactly is Microsoft doing? To date, backwards compatible Xbox games haven't always been easy to purchase, typically redirecting users to the Xbox 360 marketplace, and sometimes being completely unavailable to buy on Xbox One. This has also made it harder for players to use Xbox gift card credit on them, and free Games with Gold titles have required a credit card to access - a necessary evil due to how the old marketplace works.
Now, it looks like all of that is finally about to go away. The classic games that Microsoft has been targeting recently can now be purchased directly from the store on your Xbox One / web browser, including this month's Games with Gold title MX Unleashed, which can now be claimed without a credit card.
As an example, here's a look at the old and new style of listings on the Microsoft Store:
So far, hundreds of games that have transitioned to this new style have been spotted by the Xbox community over the past 24 hours, including a whole bunch of previously delisted titles that we highlighted yesterday (although many of those have now been taken off sale again).
Furthermore, lots of Xbox users are now noticing duplicate games in their Xbox libraries, and some were even gifted a free copy of GTA: Liberty City Stories yesterday - seemingly bugs related to these store updates.
Ultimately then, it looks like Microsoft is making a big effort at moving these backwards compatible games to the modern store ahead of the Xbox Series X's release this Holiday. It should be a win-win for everyone!
Pleased to see Microsoft transitioning old games to the modern store? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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Comments 22
That's good, it was such a pain in the ass.
@AlexSora89 I remember having a chat about this issue with you awhile back on a different discussion board. Looks like they're finally fixing the issue!
Very good news!!!
Next stage would surely be OG Xbox and Xbox 360 tabs in the store to make it even clearer and easy to by back compat games
Awesome! Now hopefully after Series X releases they can get more games on BC. Still pulling for Prince of Persia HD Trilogy and Tony Hawks American Wasteland.
This is great news to see, making BC games easier to buy will pay dividends for them in the long run...
This was really needed. The Microsoft store and Xbox 360 marketplace interconnections are an endless loop of frustration.
I'm very okay with this update, it makes downloading Xbox and 360 games easier.
This is huge and LONG overdue. Buying 360 games should not be that difficult from the Xbox One store.
That's a Nice Update..
I was debating getting all my 360 games digitally for Xbox one but it’s just so expensive, I’ll use Fable Anniversary as an example, to purchase digitally it’s £30 but I can get it pre owned for £10 and even doing that it still downloads it to the console without reading the disc.
Good idea to make it all easier but they just need to be cheaper
@WesEds I bought all the Fable games on a digital sale, I think they were 50% off. They're also on Game Pass for those that are subscribed (I am but they were added later).
I've been able to buy any game I've wanted but its much harder than it should be. All should be available through the Xbox One store without having to mess about on a PC. While they're at it can they also get rid of having to have an extra click just to see the price? I mean why is it secret
Still does not work on all games. Daytona USA, for example, is not available
@carlos82 that’s all basically what they did. Most these games are now part of the Xbox One store. I looked through all BC games earlier and almost all show the price now, and can be bought normally. The few that don’t (that I spot checked) seem to simply be entirely delisted, trying to “see price” on those now just take you to an error screen.
@FraserG Another thing that has changed is that buying a 360 or OG Xbox game on XB1 now gives you access to the same game on 360 whereas before you had to buy it on 360 to get access on 360.
Needs the godfather 1and 2 please
@Grumblevolcano wait that was a thing?!
I have never noticed this before, maybe it’s always been this way, but today I looked at the GamePass app and noticed how it will say “Plays on PC” or “Plays on Console” when you do a search. Not “Plays on XBox” but “on Console.” Wonder if this is due to xCloud, although even then, xCloud is not exactly a console.
While I didn't often have an issue actually buying BC games (except Daytona which had to be bought in a browser), seeing the prices when looking through sales used to be a right pain. Good to see it finally sorted.
I will finally be able to purchase Pac Man Championship Edition and Pac man Championship Edition DX!!!
@MAC26
Eeyup. I was looking forward to this. Can't wait to, y'know, be able to actually buy the damn 360 games on my X1. I'm just surprised it took Microsoft this long to solve the issue.
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