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[intbal]

If Phil Spencer is a man of his word, he will re-establish the backwards compatibility program to add all the games from Original Xbox and Xbox 360 that they now have access to, having acquired Activision and all of its properties.
This is a substantial number of games.
When they ended the BC program, they claim they had exhausted the source of obtainable rights for additional games. That hurdle is gone now for a large number of games.
Phil has previously made claims that he is in favor of game preservation and that backwards compatibility is one way to achieve that.
To that end, Xbox should look to see which new games can be added to their library.

I have put together an incomplete list of games that were published by Activision or its subsidiaries for the Original Xbox and Xbox 360.
Some of these are obvious adds, since Microsoft will own absolutely every portion of the games involved (ex. Return to Castle Wolfenstein).
Others will still have licensing issues that can't be resolved, such as music and car model rights, and perhaps actor royalties.
But there would still be great value to the Xbox platform to add as many of the following games to backwards compatibility as they can.

007: Blood Stone
007: Legends
007: Quantum of Solace
4x4 Evo 2
50 Cent: Bulletproof
Aliens Versus Predator: Extinction
American Chopper
American Chopper 2: Full Throttle
Angry Birds Trilogy
Apache Air Assault
Bakugan: Battle Brawlers
Bakugan: Defenders of the Core
Band Hero
Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue
Bass Pro Shops: Trophy Bass 2007
Bass Pro Shops: Trophy Hunter 2007
Battleship
Battlestar Galactica
Bee Movie Game
Bicycle Casino
Blade II
Blur
Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds
Cabela's Adventure Camp
Cabela's African Safari
Cabela's Big Game Hunter
Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2005 Adventures
Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2010
Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2012
Cabela's Big Game Hunter: Pro Hunts
Cabela's Dangerous Hunts
Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2
Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2009
Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2011
Cabela's Deer Hunt: 2004 Season
Cabela's Deer Hunt: 2005 Season
Cabela's Hunting Expeditions
Cabela's Outdoor Adventures
Cabela's Outdoor Adventures 2009
Cabela's Trophy Bucks
Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
Call of Duty: Finest Hour
Chaotic: Shadow Warriors
Civil War: Secret Missions
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
Crash Nitro Kart
Crash of the Titans
Crash Tag Team Racing
Crash Twinsanity
Crash: Mind over Mutant
Deadpool
Die Hard: Vendetta
Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure
DJ Hero
DreamWorks Shark Tale
Dreamworks Super Star Kartz
Enclave
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Eragon
Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel
Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse
Fantastic 4
Fast & Furious: Showdown
Fight Club
FlatOut
FlatOut 2
Futurama
Generator Rex: Agent of Providence
GoldenEye 007: Reloaded
Greg Hastings' Tournament Paintball
Greg Hastings' Tournament Paintball Max'd
Guitar Hero 5
Guitar Hero II
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Guitar Hero: World Tour
Gun
Hot Wheels: Beat That!
How to Train Your Dragon
Hulk
Hunter: The Reckoning - Redeemer
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
Ice Age: Continental Drift - Arctic Games
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
James Cameron's Dark Angel
Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death
Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis
Jurassic: The Hunted
Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer
Kung Fu Panda
Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Little League World Series Baseball 2010
Mace Griffin: Bouny Hunter
Madagascar
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2
Men of Valor
Metal Arms: Glitch in the System
MIB: Alien Crisis
Minority Report: Everybody Runs
Monster Garage
Monster Jam
MTV Pimp My Ride
MTX Mototrax
NASCAR The Game 2011
NASCAR: Unleashed
NPPL Championship Paintball 2009
Over the Hedge
Pitfall: The Lost Expedition
Predator: Concrete Jungle
Prototype
Prototype 2
Quake 4
Rally Fusion: Race of Champions
Rapala Pro Fishing
Rapala's Fishing Frenzy
Red Ninja: End of Honor
Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War
Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy
Robots
Scarface: The World Is Yours
Secret Service
Shamu's Deep Sea Adventures
Shrek 2
Shrek Forever After: The Final Chapter
Shrek Smash N' Crash Racing
Shrek SuperSlam
Shrek the Third
Shrek-N-Roll
Singularity
Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix
Soldier of Fortune: Payback
Spider-Man
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man: Edge of Time
Spider-Man: Friend or Foe
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
SpongeBob SquarePants: Plankton's Robotic Revenge
Spyro: A Hero's Tail
Starsky & Hutch
Street Hoops
SWAT: Global Strike Team
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2013
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
Tenchu: Return from Darkness
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
The History Channel: Battle for the Pacific
The History Channel: Civil War - A Nation Divided
The Hobbit
The Hustle: Detroit Streets
The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning
The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon (360)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Simpsons: Hit & Run
The Simpsons: Road Rage
The Spiderwick Chronicles
The Thing
The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD
Tony Hawk's Project 8
Tony Hawk's Proving Ground
Tony Hawk's Underground
Tony Hawk's Underground 2
Tony Hawk: Ride
Tony Hawk: Shred
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Transformers: The Game
Transformers: War for Cybertron
True Crime: New York City
True Crime: Streets of LA
Ty3 the Tasmanian Tiger: Night of the Quinkan
Ultimate Spider-Man
Van Helsing
Vigilante 8: Arcade
Wakeboarding Unleashed
Wipeout 2
Wipeout 3
Wolfenstein (2009)
World Series of Poker
World Series of Poker 2008
World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions
Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
X-Men: Destiny
X-Men: Legends
X-Men: Legends II - Rise of Apocalypse
X-Men: Next Dimension
X-Men: The Official Game
X2: Wolverine's Revenge


I thought alphabetical order was the best choice, since it would be messy (and take a lot more time) to arrange them by platform, year, and publishing subsidiary.
Again, this isn't a complete list. Activision owned a LOT of stuff. But it's all I could find before I got sick of looking.

I have no idea why Shrek games were ever so popular

 

[BennyBlanco]

None of that licensed shit is gonna happen, and sadly that’s the majority of it.

 

[kanjobazooie]

I can't believe Microsoft owns Shrek and Bruce Lee now.

 

[Three]

Most of these are licenced IPs so likely most of these aren't happening.

 

[adamsapple]

 

[intbal]

Most of these are licenced IPs so likely most of these aren't happening.

Yep. That's a lot of what Activision was involved in during the 2001-2010 years.

 

[NickFire]

OP lost me before the first comma in his post.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

You are making an assumption that Activision owns the rights to most of those games, which definitely is not the case.

I actually can't believe how much licensed stuff is there lol

 

[Banjo64]

Take out the ones which are a licensing nightmare in terms of rights and ownership and the list is a quarter as big.

 

[rofif]

lol none of this shit will ever be released again in any form.
Microsoft is already sitting on ton of franchises they are not touching

 

[intbal]

You are making an assumption that Activision owns the rights to most of those games, which definitely is not the case.

I actually can't believe how much licensed stuff is there lol

Not making any assumptions.
Just listing which games they published.
As I stated, MS needs to look and see what can be added.

 

[Roberts]

I would like this to be true but I don’t think they will assemble a new BC team just to add, hmm, 10-15 games to the list.

 

[Robochobo]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds
Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
Predator: Concrete Jungle
Shrek SuperSlam
Spider-Man
X2: Wolverine's Revenge

 

[BennyBlanco]

Prototype games should be remastered. They were fucking sick. Hulk Ultimate Destruction too but that aint gonna happen. Wonder what happened to that team. Probably cranking out CoD skins in a basement somewhere and Bobby shows up once a month to piss in their coffee pot.

 

[calistan]

Reminds me of the stuff that got auctioned off for pennies when Acclaim went under.

 

[intbal]

Just to be clear, this is what I personally think Microsoft should do.

In reality, I have very little confidence that they will reopen the backwards compatibility program.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Felt like legacy games were missing for years.

 

[analog_future]

 

[SteelCurtain 59]

None of that licensed shit is gonna happen, and sadly that’s the majority of it.

I wouldn't say "none" I imagine at least some of them could've been held up by Activision or things that were too expensive or not worth the effort to try. There will definitely be a renewed interest in Xbox trying to get some. Especially in things like Tony Hawk where they could at least release some of those with changed soundtracks in the worst case, or try and get as many songs they can get from those games. Not saying it's a guarantee or anything but probably possible

 

[Darkkahn]

Can't wait for a Crash game by Arkane!

 

[Banjo64]

Just to be clear, this is what I personally think Microsoft should do.

In reality, I have very little confidence that they will reopen the backwards compatibility program.

It’s just about what they can actually do (what’s in their power). None of the licensed games are under their control.

What we’ll actually see is all of the CoDs, Spyro, Crash, THPS, Diablo games & perks for their service games like Overwatch and their PC games.

 

[Freelance Yakuza]

Op, I would love to live in the universe where that happens, unfortunately I don't see Microsoft caring about that.
I would be extremely happy to be wrong

From that list, my most wanted game is Crash Team Racing/Nitro Kart

 

[Mister Wolf]

Those Transformers games definitely need to be on Gamepass.

 

[intbal]

Op, I would love to live in the universe where that happens, unfortunately I don't see Microsoft caring about that.
I would be extremely happy to be wrong

From that list, my most wanted game is Crash Team Racing/Nitro Kart

My most wanted is Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions

 

[JohnnyFootball]

lol none of this shit will ever be released again in any form.
Microsoft is already sitting on ton of franchises they are not touching

Fallout...cough....cough

 

[rofif]

Fallout...cough....cough

bethesda and ID stuff is a done deal

 

[PSFan]

Where are the Activision Atari 2600 games? You did say 'legacy games'.

 

[Dick Jones]

lol none of this shit will ever be released again in any form.
Microsoft is already sitting on ton of franchises they are not touching

Just you wait until Microsoft buy Microsoft and then all the IPs of Microsoft that they will revive. All that history of reviving IP they have /s

 

[bender]

This list reminds me of when Microsoft Execs thought they had the rights to Donkey Kong when they purchased Rare.

 

[intbal]

Where are the Activision Atari 2600 games? You did say 'legacy games'.

The Atari Flashback Classics games were published on Xbox One. That would have included some of them.
I didn't want to have to pick my way through every Activision Atari game and look for ownership rights.
There were other things I left off the list, too.
Like all those f#&ing Skylanders games.
I also should have left off the Guitar Hero games and all the Kinect v1 games. Since nothing like that is going to be made backwards compatible on newer systems.

 

[VulcanRaven]

I want Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Spider-Man 2 and 3. The first two are not movie games so they are more likely.

 

[adamsapple]

Fallout...cough....cough

Todd Howard Confirms Fallout 5 Is Coming After Elder Scrolls 6 - IGN

Todd Howard has confirmed to IGN that Fallout 5 will be Bethesda Game Studios' next game after The Elder Scrolls 6, which itself will follow on from 2023's Starfield.

www.ign.com

Oblivion Remaster, Fallout 3 Remaster, and More Leaked From Microsoft Document - IGN

Microsoft documents have leaked a number of unannounced Bethesda games, including an Oblivion remaster.

www.ign.com

You should have that cough looked at, I guess.

 

[NeverYouMind]

007: Blood Stone
Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds
GoldenEye 007: Reloaded
Gun
Predator: Concrete Jungle
Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War
Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy
Scarface: The World Is Yours
Spider-Man
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
Tenchu: Return from Darkness
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
Tony Hawk's Underground
Tony Hawk's Underground 2
True Crime: New York City
True Crime: Streets of LA
Wolfenstein (2009)

A man can dream...

 

[VAVA Mk2]

Man they did so much licensed crap before CoD and Guitar Hero were hits and they bought Blizzard and King.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Todd Howard Confirms Fallout 5 Is Coming After Elder Scrolls 6 - IGN

Todd Howard has confirmed to IGN that Fallout 5 will be Bethesda Game Studios' next game after The Elder Scrolls 6, which itself will follow on from 2023's Starfield.

www.ign.com

Oblivion Remaster, Fallout 3 Remaster, and More Leaked From Microsoft Document - IGN

Microsoft documents have leaked a number of unannounced Bethesda games, including an Oblivion remaster.

www.ign.com

You should have that cough looked at, I guess.

Coming when? In 20 years?

We should have remasters of Fallout 1-3 and New Vegas by now. A competent publisher would have done that.

 

[March Climber]

007: Blood Stone
007: Legends
007: Quantum of Solace

I really enjoyed the Daniel Craig era bond games for what they were. I feel like people were too busy expecting Goldeneye 64 part 2 for every single release.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

I think a lot of the games will have issues with music licensing and stuff like that.

 

[swaffles23]

I really hope Singularity gets made backwards compatible.. such an underrated game

 

[Thirty7ven]

Spoiler

lmao at the licensed games, good luck

 

[Perrott]

I hope you PC Game Pass players will give Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (steampunk-fantasy Fallout-style game, by the original creators of Fallout) a shot when it joins the PC catalogue.

 

[adamsapple]

Coming when? In 20 years?

We should have remasters of Fallout 1-3 and New Vegas by now. A competent publisher would have done that.

BGS just put out a game a month ago, you want them to have another full scale game in the matter of weeks ?

good luck

 

[cireza]

*Looks at the list*

Yeah, now I understand why the only Activision game I ever played is Sekiro.

 

[diffusionx]

I predict that a grand total of zero of those games are going to be BC. Microsoft bought them to get COD not to bring Shrek Superslam to Xbox Series X, give me a break.

 

[RoadHazard]

Fuck yeah, Cabela Pass!

 

[graywolf323]

ITT people that don’t understand the headache of expired licenses, I mean that’s reason that Xbox cited in why they shut down the BC program in the first place

 

[reinking]

 

[LordCBH]

Make GUN backwards compatible you fucking cowards.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

BGS just put out a game a month ago, you want them to have another full scale game in the matter of weeks ?

good luck

Dude, let me spell this out for you:

MS now owns these franchises, they should be commissioning other studios to work on these. There is no reason to force us to wait 15 or so years for mainline Bethesda to put out another Fallout game. Giving a confirmation that BGS will eventually work on and release another Fallout game well after they finish another game likely is barely in pre-production doesn't count as utilizing especially when you look at MS track record when it comes to franchises like Fable and Halo.

Especially when Obsidian has proven that they can do it better. And no, I am not advocating for Obsidian since they are busy with Avowed. That's what Xbox would be doing with competent leadership, but they don't. They can assemble a team of developers who want to work on these franchises.

Are we on the same page now?

 

[LordBlodgett]

I want Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Spider-Man 2 and 3. The first two are not movie games so they are more likely.

None of the Spider-Man games are happening. Pretty sure Marvel isn't going to negotiate for the older titles when they have a current deal with Sony. Only way you see this is if Marvel is pissed at Sony for some reason and wants to let them know they are willing to negotiate with other companies. Even then sounds like a silly fanboy fantasy

 

[adamsapple]

Dude, let me spell this out for you:

MS now owns these franchises, they should be commissioning other studios to work on these. There is no reason to force us to wait 15 or so years for mainline Bethesda to put out another Fallout game. Giving a confirmation that BGS will eventually work on and release another Fallout game well after they finish another game likely is barely in pre-production doesn't count as utilizing especially when you look at MS track record when it comes to franchises like Fable and Halo.

Especially when Obsidian has proven that they can do it better. And no, I am not advocating for Obsidian since they are busy with Avowed. That's what Xbox would be doing with competent leadership, but they don't. They can assemble a team of developers who want to work on these franchises.

Are we on the same page now?

Obsidian, and pretty much all of their studios, are working on their own projects right now. Obsidian are making 2 WRPGs of their own.

No we're not on the same page. Especially cause you're trying to count an IP which has at least 2 projects in the pipeline as something 'they're not touching'.