Microsoft just gave you another great reason to buy an Xbox Series X or S

Today marks 20 years since the original Xbox first launch in North America, and to celebrate the landmark occasion Microsoft held an Xbox Anniversary Celebration live stream today. And it was an unmissable event, giving anyone that’s bought an Xbox Series X or S plenty of reasons to be pleased with their purchase. The biggest headline announcement was the surprise reveal that the multiplayer portion of Halo Infinite is launching today in beta.

This means the free-to-play download is available almost a month before Halo Infinite launches on December 8. The surprise Halo Infinite multiplayer release is one exciting reason to own an Xbox Series X or S right now. But there’s another, with Microsoft further enhancing one of the best reasons to own an Xbox over a PlayStation.

Undoubtedly one of Microsoft’s strongest areas in recent years has been its level of backwards compatible support.

While the PS5 only plays PS4 games via backwards compatibility, the Xbox Series consoles can play games from every Xbox generation.

With the Xbox Series X you can enter discs from the original Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One eras and play them with modern day enhancements, such as better frame rates and enhanced textures.

While with the Xbox Series S, since it’s a digital only console, you’ll have to download these games from the Xbox Store.

Playing a game from the early 2000s on your next-gen console with enhancements that transform the visuals, essentially giving it a remaster-style treatment, is quite something.

And now Microsoft has enhanced its backwards compatibility support even further by adding some 70 new games to the library.

If you’re a fan of the original Xbox, 20 games from Microsoft’s influential debut console are now playable via back compat.

These titles include the FromSoftware developed Otogi and Otogi 2, SEGA shooter Gunvalkyrie, Red Dead Revolver, Max Payne 1 and 2, Munch’s Oddysee, TimeSplitters 2 and Xbox launch game Dead or Alive 3.

In terms of Xbox 360 games, a tonne of brilliant titles have also just been added via backward compatibility.

This includes the FEAR games, Max Payne 3, Manhunt, the original Nier, Ridge Racer 6 and Binary Domain.

If you love retro games, or just want to play some classic titles you missed out on first time round, then today’s news will be music to your ears – and the ideal way to celebrate 20 years of Xbox history.

The original Xbox first launched on November 15 2021 in North America, and brought with it a number of innovations that changed console gaming forever.

The most notable being the OG Xbox being the first console ever to have a built-in hard drive, with rival systems such as the PS2 and Nintendo GameCube relying on memory cards for saving games.

Besides adding a convenient way for gamers to save their progress, the inclusion of hard drives in consoles would change the way games were developed going forward forever.

The original Xbox introduced Xbox Live as well, with that focus on online gaming also being a huge first for the console market.

The Dreamcast was the first console to go big on online gaming, but sadly after that ambitious SEGA console was discontinued after two years the torch was passed onto Microsoft’s system.

And finally, the launch of the original Xbox also marked the debut of a now legendary gaming icon – Master Chief.

Bungie’s hugely influential and seminal shooter Halo: Combat Evolved was a launch game for the original Xbox.

And it’s arguably one of the best launch games ever alongside all time greats such as Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.