Marrying the old with the new – Xbox and Xbox 360 titles come to cloud gaming

In what was, in hindsight, a somewhat obvious move, Xbox today announced that it would be releasing a handful of backward-compatible titles onto its cloud gaming service – for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members.

That means games from both the original Xbox and Xbox 360 are now playable on Android handsets. And a very interesting selection of titles it is.

There’s plenty of Rare games here, including the Perfect Dark remaster for the Xbox 360 and Perfect Dark Zero, which could be an intriguing taster for the upcoming reboot. Then there’s Banjo-Kazooie and its sequel -Tooie, plus Xbox 360 launch title Kameo, and Viva Pinata plus its sequel (both with touch controls)

In respect to Microsoft’s purchase of Bethesda, players can now play Elder Scrolls Oblivion and Morrowind on their mobile devices, plus there’s Obsidian’s Fallout New Vegas too.

Of final note, and of absolutely no surprise to anyone, is a raft of Gears of War titles, including the second and third outings and Judgement.

While many of these titles, even with improvements, can look a little tired on a big living room TV, they will likely still shine when packed into a 6in phone display. Plus they provide potential onboarding points for their respective IPs in a format that some might find time for away from their core gaming.