Xbox One gamers freaked out over the weekend when several of the most-requested Xbox 360 games for backwards compatibility seemingly arrived.
However, there was no announcement from Microsoft and downloading the games was much more complicated than normal. Microsoft has since responded, stating that the arrival of Red Dead Redemption, Left 4 Dead 2, Halo Wars, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was a mistake.
Xbox spokesman Larry Hryb, aka Major Nelson, took to Twitter to clarify:
All 360 games are tested through an emulator for quality. Due to an error, games in test were temp avail. Apologies https://t.co/pyANPhdRxj
— Larry Hryb (@majornelson) February 7, 2016
That explains the convoluted process required to download the games. Players first had to have a digital copy of one of the titles listed above and then needed to follow RockoHoward (the gamertag of the Twitter user who discovered the leak) to find the listings of the games for download. The games are no longer available.
While the games were made available due to an error, it at least confirms which backwards-compatible games fans can expect in the near future. Since Microsoft began taking requests for backwards-compatible games from the community, Red Dead Redemption and Halo Wars have both been toward the top of the list.
The top two most-requested games are Call of Duty: Black Ops II and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but so far no word from Microsoft when, if ever, those games might arrive. The publishers of those two titles may have future plans for re-releasing the titles on Xbox One, and if that's the case, don't expect them to make the Xbox 360 game backwards compatible. The complete list of backwards-compatible titles was last updated on Jan. 21.
