The favorite ‘Orange Box‘ game bundle, which includes Half-Life, its sequels, ‘Team Fortress Two’ and ‘Portal’ is now available for the Xbox One today thanks to Backward Compatibility. Gamers can purchase the Orange Box bundle at the Xbox Store for $19.99.
First news surfaced via Twitter thanks to the Xbox Live’s current Director of Programming, Larry Hryb. The executive (@majornelson) said the bundle would start selling today for the console in a tweet, alongside ‘Joe Danger 2: The Movie’ and ‘Galaga Legions.’
‘Backward compatibility’ is a term that refers to a device’s capability to interact with an older version of itself which is less technologically advanced, or with products designed for an older version of itself. In this case, it refers to the Xbox One’s capability to run Xbox 360 games.
The story behind ‘The Orange Box,’ one of the world’s best-selling video game bundles
‘The Orange Box’ first came out in 2007, compiled and distributed by Valve Corporation, the game developers famous for the Half-Life series and other classic first-person-shooters like the Counter-Strike series.
The bundle is currently available at the Steam website as well, which means that the games can run on Windows, OS X, and Linux. A PlayStation 3 version, managed by Electronic Arts (EA) came out in December 2007.
The compilation was the breakthrough device for the critically acclaimed puzzle game ‘Portal,’ ()which came to be one of Valve’s top sellers of all time with over four million copies sold (without taking into consideration its Steam downloads).
As stated above, the configuration of the Orange Box also includes ‘Half-Life 2’ (2004), ‘Half-Life 2: Episode One’ (2006), ‘Half-Life 2: Episode Two’ (2007), and ‘Team Fortress Two’ (released as a standalone in 2008).
The Xbox One’s Backward Compatibility: features and requirements
Backward Compatibility became available for the console a year ago in November. The feature does not require any additional charges and allows players to keep their save files, add-ons, achievements, and their Gamerscore.
The Xbox One’s capabilities also improve the experience of playing Xbox 360 games. Players can make use of features like Game DVR, Screenshots and Windows 10 Streaming while playing older games. Backward Compatibility works with disc and digital games and allows for multiplayer sessions between One and 360.
Disc games for the 360 will automatically work after the Xbox One finishes downloading them to the hard drive. The disc will have to remain inside the console at all times for the game to work, however.
Digital-based games will appear on the Ready to Install section of the Xbox One menu and will move to the Games section once the player installs them.
Not all Xbox 360 games are currently Backward Compatible. The company is in the process of adding more titles to the official list, updated this month.
Source: Major Nelson
