Xbox 360 backwards compatibility list grows - a little

Microsoft has made a minor update to the Xbox 360 backwards compatibility list, adding patches to allow three new titles to run on the new console - namely Black, Star Wars Battlefront II, and Winning Eleven 9.

The update, which is the first change to the list of backwards compatible titles in several months, also fixes issues with a number of games which previously worked with the Xbox 360 but had bugs in the compatibility code, including Ninja Gaiden, Fable, Half-Life 2 and GTA San Andreas.

Details of the new update were posted on the popular blog of Xbox Live director of programming Larry Hyrb (better known by his GamerTag, Major Nelson), and the update appears to apply to European users as well as US users, according to comments left on the blog.

As with all previous backwards compatibility patches, users can download these new updates by putting the Xbox game that requires them into the Xbox 360 drive while connected to Xbox Live. They can also be downloaded to a PC from the Xbox.com website and transferred to the Xbox 360 on a CD-R.

Although only a small number of games have been added to the list with this update, Microsoft's stated goal is to eventually have every Xbox game working on the Xbox 360 - although at this rate of progress, it looks like it could take a long time for that objective to be met.