Microsoft made a big show of the new Xbox One X during its E3 press conference, promising 4K visuals, faster loading times, and the ability to shoot rainbows at will, but for people who like to use new technology to do things that were possible with old technology, Microsoft also announced that it’s expanding its backward compatibility program—which allowed people to play select Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One—to include titles from the original Xbox as well. The company didn’t offer much information beyond that, but it did confirm that original Xbox games will begin popping up on the Xbox One later this year, and that one of them will be FASA’s 2003 aerial combat game Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge.
Presumably, as original Xbox games become available for Xbox One, you’ll be able to download them from within the Xbox One console’s store. That means anyone who hasn’t been inexplicably holding onto their dust-covered copies of Blinx: The Time Sweeper, Otogi, or Azurik: Rise Of Perathia won’t be totally out of luck. They’ll still have to buy new copies to download, but at least they’ll be able to experience the thrill of Azurik: Rise Of Perathia again.
Interestingly, this news came out just after the release of a (semi-debunked) report that the existing backward compatibility program on Xbox One isn’t very popular.