Xbox Game Pass Ultimate now adds older games

Xbox announced this morning this 16 original Xbox and Xbox 360 games are now available on its cloud gaming service. Anyone with an active Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership can play beloved classics such as Banjo-Kazooie, Fable 2, and Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind nowadays.

“We’ve listened to the feedback, going back to our very first look at cloud gaming, and making games from previous generations available on mobile devices has been one of the community’s most requested features,” Xbox Wire Editor-in Chef Will Tuttle wrote in a blog post announcing the additions.

The full list of original games includes: Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Double Dragon Neon, Fable II, Fallout: New Vegas, Gears of War 2, Gears of War 3, Gears of War: Judgment, Refueled Jetpac, Kameo, Perfect Dark, Perfect Dark Zero, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Viva Piñata, and Viva Piñata: ADVICE.

Microsoft officially acquired Bethesda in early March, it is therefore not surprising that a few Old scrolls The games were the first to arrive on the company’s Xbox cloud gaming platform. Banjo-Kazooie was originally released for the Nintendo 64, but Microsoft acquired Rare in 2002, shortly after the launch of the original Xbox, it is therefore not surprising that the two best of Banjo-Kazooie games are now available through the cloud.

In addition to expanding its library of games on the cloud, game preservation has become a growing priority for Xbox. It’s a refreshing contrast to how companies like Sony make it harder to buy or play classic games. While to be fair Sony has its own cloud gaming platform, Playstation now, and most of the more than 800 games in its library are PS3 and PS2 games. It’s also $ 5 less per month than an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership.

“There’s just a bunch of inherent complexities when generations and platforms change and you can relive games you’ve played before,” Tuttle wrote in the announcement.

Making old games available through the cloud is a simpler and more accessible way to find out about video game history instead of going back to an old console, all the cables and hoping the game cartridge is still working.

While my Nintendo 64 console and Banjo-Kazooie the cartridge is still working perfectly, the agreedand novelty of cloud gaming means anyone with good internet connection or good cell phone reception can play these classic games anytime, anywhere. (Or at home on their Xbox console.)