Dark Souls Added to Xbox One Backward Compatibility
By Dalton Cooper 26 March 2016
Major Nelson confirms two more games that have been added to the Xbox One backward compatibility list, as Dark Souls and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 join the service.
Ever since it was first announced that the Xbox One would be backward compatible with Xbox 360 games, fans have been making wishlists for games they’d like to see added to the service. One game that likely topped many of those lists is Dark Souls, the brutally difficult spiritual successor to Demon’s Souls that managed to find mainstream success last generation. Luckily for fans of the franchise, the wait for Dark Souls to be playable on Xbox One is now over.
With Dark Souls 3 scheduled to release in Japan tomorrow and April 12th worldwide, it makes sense for Bandai Namco to add the first Dark Souls to the backward compatibility list. Interest in Dark Souls 3 could result in a potential sales boost for its predecessors, and Bandai and Microsoft will surely capitalize on that.
Not only has Dark Souls been added to the list of Xbox 360 games playable on Xbox One, but Xbox’s Major Nelson confirms that it will be joined by a second game from Bandai Namco, Tekken Tag Tournament 2. And thanks to the latest Xbox One update, both games can be purchased directly on the system right now.
The addition of Dark Souls and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 to the list of backward compatible titles on Xbox One comes hot on the heels of Assassin’s Creed, which made the list just a few days ago. With five AAA games added to the service in a single week, it appears as though Microsoft is being more aggressive about the feature than it has been lately.
To that end, continued backward compatibility support suggests Microsoft is seeing a positive response to their initiative. It only stands to reason that the company wouldn’t continue supporting the feature if it wasn’t boosting sales or increasing its revenue in some capacity, but it’s worth noting that concrete sales figures on these backward compatible games hasn’t been shared as of yet.
By bringing Dark Souls to the Xbox One, and by offering the game as a Dark Souls 3 pre-order bonus, Microsoft likely hopes to boost the sales of the newest game in the critically-acclaimed series on its system. Those wanting to experience all three games in the Dark Souls trilogy on one home console can only do so on the Xbox One for now, which may convince some hardcore fans of the franchise to go with the Xbox One version of Dark Souls 3 as opposed to other platforms.
Dark Souls is currently available for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
Source: GameSpot
