Xbox One Backward Compatibility For Multi-Disc Games Coming ‘Early Next Year’

Microsoft announced Deux Ex: Human Revolution as one of the free Games with Gold titles for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 early on Monday. Eidos Montreal simultaneously answered the question of which version of the role-playing game would be made available and when support for multi-disk games will arrive a week ago, though.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution was added to the backwards compatibility list with the December Xbox One update last week. This does not include support for the Director’s Cut version of the game or the Missing Link DLC. This is due to the fact that the solution the Xbox backwards compatibility team came up with does not support multi-disk games.

The official Deus Ex Twitter account helpfully explained this in a post along with the backwards compatibility update. It also revealed that support for games with multiple disks is just around the corner.

For those asking: Missing Link and DXHR Director’s Cut are currently not supported, but the Xbox team expect them to be early next year.

— Deus Ex (@DeusEx) December 18, 2015

A separate Tweet states that Missing Link will be added as soon as support is added by the Xbox team. Whether this means the Director’s Cut will also be available remains to be seen.

This is an important distinction for Deus Ex. As mentioned in the January Games with Gold announcement article earlier today, Human Revolution was near universally praised, but was knocked for its boss fights. This was the one area of the game that did not match the open-ended nature of the game that allowed players to choose a stealth option. Those that did go with that option found themselves to be outmatched by the bosses.

The Director’s Cut eventually retooled the boss fights and solved the problem of players being forced down the combat path or paying the price.

Multi-disk support for Xbox 360 games also opens up possibilities for other titles to become backwards compatible with the Xbox One. Some of the notable hits include Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 along with Game of the Year and Legendary versions of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Other games on the list include Assassin’s Creed III and Wolfenstein: The New Order, which has four disks.

As the Inquisitr previously covered, Xbox One manages backwards compatibility by emulating the entire Xbox 360 operating system. This allows Xbox 360 games to run on the Xbox One without any special coding or other workarounds. The major hurdle that is left is licensing agreements with the development studios and publishers to allow the games to be played on the Xbox One and listed for sale on the Xbox Store for the console.

Additionally, all Xbox Games with Gold titles going forward will be backwards compatible for the Xbox One. The current selection of free Xbox 360 titles include Sacred 3 and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. Both games will be free to download until the end of December. They will be replaced at the start of January by Dirt Showdown on January 1, 2016 followed by Deus Ex: Human Revolution on January 16.

An Xbox LIVE Gold subscription is required to get free games from the Games with Gold program. The subscription is typically $60 a year, or $25 for three months, but can be found at a discounted price of $30 to $40 for deal hunters.

Which multi-disk Xbox 360 games would you like to see brought forward to the Xbox One via backwards compatibility? Sound off in the comments below.