X360 runs Halo 1/2 from day one

By Tom Bramwell Published 17 October, 2005

Come back evolved.

First of all, we've resisted the temptation to do, "Halo for Xbox 360 launch", so how about some biscuits? Second, according to numerous reports based on Microsoft's recent show-and-tell tour of the American tech-and-games-press circuit, Xbox 360 will launch with legacy support for Xbox titles Halo and Halo 2.

Microsoft's Peter Moore said at X05 that some Xbox 1 games would be backwards-compatible at the launch of 360, and said, "We will probably be in a position in about two weeks to give you a list," which means we can probably expect one either this week or at least soon.

That Halo and Halo 2 are on the list is about as surprising as another viral marketing campaign, but there you go. We'll let you know when the rest of the list's confirmed.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (46) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • tengu #1 6 years ago

    8/10

  • Carlo #2 6 years ago

    Great... What about the rest of the games?

  • thegamesthething #3 6 years ago

    ffs carlo, the article is about 100 words long, try reading it again

  • Carlo #4 6 years ago

    I'm not talking about getting a list of what ones, I'm talking about them DOING them.

  • Blerk #5 6 years ago

    What a shocker! :-o

  • neosalad #6 6 years ago

    hmm, no surprise there then.

    what about the rest of them, i'm actually gonna be really interested to see how many games from xbox1 are gonna be running on this machine, though most people have an xbox already that will buy a 360, but there may be the odd few people who dont, so will maybe want to buy some of the xbox games they havent played...

    neosalad
    Edited by 1 at 17/10/05 @ 10:18

  • Psi #7 6 years ago

    so.. better than halo?

  • trav #8 6 years ago

    call me crazy, but if you want to play all you Xbox games....why don't you keep your Xbox. If you don't have one, go out a buy one. You got the money to spend £280 on a X360, I'm sure £60 won't burn a hole in your pocket for a second-hand one.

  • tengu #9 6 years ago

    And have 2 oversized slabs under the TV instead of one? That wouldn't be cool :(

  • Blerk #10 6 years ago

    And have 2 oversized slabs under the TV instead of one? That wouldn't be cool :(

    Perhaps you could make a nice telly table out of them?

  • optimusprym8 #11 6 years ago

    That's no bloody good as I just got an email from Play.com saying that Microsoft has announced that the numbers of systems destined for Europe is severely less than expected and therefore my pre-order (made on Day1, previously told I would be guaranteed a console on Dec 2nd etc) wouldn't be getting to me before Xmas. Fan-fucking-tastic, thanks a lot M$. I think I'll save my cash for something else now [CANCEL ORDER].

  • space_ace #12 6 years ago

    > so.. better than halo?

    yeah, if you don't play it on the 360, you haven't played it at all!

  • el-bandito #13 6 years ago

    Will you be able to play them High def now the 360 has this enabled?

  • Eighthours #14 6 years ago

    That's no bloody good as I just got an email from Play.com saying that Microsoft has announced that the numbers of systems destined for Europe is severely less than expected and therefore my pre-order (made on Day1, previously told I would be guaranteed a console on Dec 2nd etc) wouldn't be getting to me before Xmas. Fan-fucking-tastic, thanks a lot M$. I think I'll save my cash for something else now [CANCEL ORDER].

    Read the email again. It says that your console cannot be GUARANTEED to arrive before Xmas. It doesn't say that you won't get it on Day 1. Every single Play customer who ordered a 360 got the same email so that the company covered themselves. You ordered on the first day, so I'm sure you'll get your console.

    Cancelling now would be a very big overreaction without reading the email properly, and WOULD be a guarantee that you don't get a console on launch day. But then it would be your fault!!

  • Sko #15 6 years ago

    If you were a bright boy, Eighthours, you'd shut up, let him cancel and improve your own chances in the process ;)

  • The-Bodybuilder #16 6 years ago

    >" I think I'll save my cash for something else now [CANCEL ORDER]."

    So let me get this straight...
    You want the x360, but thier is a possibility you may not get it before christmas.
    So in retaliation, you are gonna cancel your pre-order, thus ensuring you WON'T get your hands on it before christmas (and possibly this year)?

  • lennon #17 6 years ago

    I wonder if that www.hex168.com is a reference to the number of games that will be backwards compatiable. Still should know tomorrow. I think it said somewhere that we would have physical evidence of the power or something.

    My only real issue with viral marketing is that it always ends up disapointing. if I want physical evidence of the power I want to hear that the 360 is shipping early and not some list of games I wont care about come launch day.

  • Eighthours #18 6 years ago

    If you were a bright boy, Eighthours, you'd shut up, let him cancel and improve your own chances in the process ;)

    Believe me, if I'd ordered with Play I'd have kept my big mouth shut! :)

  • Mr_Bogus #19 6 years ago

    Wahey, 2 guaranteed launch titles!

  • Lutz #20 6 years ago

    Xbox 360 will launch with legacy support for Xbox titles Halo and Halo 2.

    I love you too Tom.

  • lennon #21 6 years ago

    Hey Lutz are you the same Lutz thats been posting about this hex168 on lots of forums?
    Edited by 1 at 17/10/05 @ 11:31

  • Derblington #22 6 years ago

    Suits me - they're the only Xbox games I've kept to play on my 360. I'd like Fable:TLC, Ninja Gaiden Black, Riddick and Farcry to work too, so that I can pick them up in the future.

  • optimusprym8 #23 6 years ago

    no my point was if I ain't gonna get it before Xmas then I will use the money for something else and get one at a later date (maybe). I accept cancelling an pre-order limits my chances of getting one before Xmas elsewhere since everyone is in the same boat. I am peeved at the fact that Play must know how many they are getting and so should be able to send emails to people who have pre-ordered saying "Yes mos def" or "No sorry..." not a generic email to all pre-orders putting the willies up everyone, mostly, for no apparent reason.

    And what prey tell is wrong with Play? At least I would be getting a discount on some parts which equals more than what I would have got in GAME or clubcard points or whatever had I pre-ordered off the street.

  • lennon #24 6 years ago

    Gameplay is the only way to fly :)

  • Wobble #25 6 years ago

    /preordered from play day one about 1h after the pricing announcement
    //no email from them yet

    atleast with ordering online you wont have to buy a stupid bundle like you probably will have to do on the highstreet.

  • Lutz #26 6 years ago

    Hey Lutz are you the same Lutz thats been posting about this hex168 on lots of forums?

    /Twitches fake mustache

    Erm... no...

    /hides

  • matrim83 #27 6 years ago

    Mr bogus :
    Wahey, 2 guaranteed launch titles!
    LMAO

    So what about live support for them is that what Legacy support means because that would be nice.
    Not really interested in SP campaign TBH.

  • HarryB #28 6 years ago

    well DUH!

  • Yossarian #29 6 years ago

    if they add Ninja Gaiden Black and Pro Evo 5 I'll be pretty much satisfied with their B/C offering. :)

  • Xerx3s #30 6 years ago

    They would be fools if they didnt. But if they are rewriting the exe files, would it be possible for halo 1 to play on xbl?

    If you get that play.com stuff, well thats play.com. Mine is still guaranteed (phoned yesterday). I never preorder online. Now i can just drive 10 mins to the store and pick it up in the morning, unlike online, where ive to wait untill somewhere in the afternoon. ^_^

  • malteaserhead #31 6 years ago

    halo 1 on live would be nice but I doubt it...

  • optimusprym8 #32 6 years ago

    well Play initially said to me that it would probably actually arrive on Dec 1st... maybe they meant 2006...

  • kangarootoo #33 6 years ago

    @el_bandito

    If the code is unchanged I would expect not. I know the XB360 will upsample DVDs that aren't recorded in highdef, but I would guess that doing the same thing for a game would take quite a bit of crunching. That said, if you are running an XB1 game on the 360 it has cycles to spare so it may be up to it.

    I'm kind of winging it here. Does anyone know more about what actually happens when you upsample a DVD stream. If you were to just increase the number of pixels you wouln't get any more detail surely, so I would assume some form of anti aliasing would be applied? If such a thing was done to a game would it be worthwhile?

    Talk about answering a question with a question.
    Edited by 1 at 17/10/05 @ 17:17

  • Scimarad #34 6 years ago

    Good news for other Play customers - I cancelled my pre-order (I realised I really, really couldn't afford it AND all the JRPGs I've got pre-ordered!) thus increasing your chances of getting one!

    Here's an idea - Start posting links to negative and scaremongering news stories in the hope of getting other people to cancel then you are practically ensuring that you'll get a 360:-)


  • Markusdragon #35 6 years ago

    "And have 2 oversized slabs under the TV instead of one? That wouldn't be cool :( "

    I have three, one's an amiga CD32. Huzzah!

  • FooAtari #36 6 years ago

    Great at least I can play the very over rated Halo 2. Halo 1 was good, but Halo 2 was quite possibly one of the biggest disapointments ive experienced in games.

  • Scimarad #37 6 years ago

    Obviously not a Suikoden fan:-)

  • HarryB #38 6 years ago

    REALLY!?
    that's gonna make me buy a 360, that is.

  • el-bandito #39 6 years ago

    @kangarootoo

    I don't think the high def is stripped from the game code... the option to set your xbox to HD has been disabled in the EU xbox dashboard.

    Has anyone with a chipped box run a pal copy of Halo in HD?

    Would be a nice if your xbox games run HD on the 360...

  • Scimarad #40 6 years ago

    If they don't I'd bloody want to know why!!

  • brombeer #41 6 years ago

    It should have run all games from day one. Period.

  • Furbs #42 6 years ago

    Why?

  • tengu #43 6 years ago

    Yep, god knows why it doesn't, if the PS3 can run it's back catalogue right off the bat, then 360 should be able to do the same. This (lack of) feature is the weakest part of the 360 imo.

  • Furbs #44 6 years ago

    Thats the whole reason I bought a Gamecube, to play my N64 games.
    No wonder I hated it.

  • tengu #45 6 years ago

    You can't play N64 games on a Gamecube furbs ^_^

  • Furbs #46 6 years ago

    Oh.