Earlier today, Rockstar’s vaunted 2010 western hit Red Dead Redemption was temporarily made available to Xbox One owners to play via the console’s backwards compatibility feature. The access to the game was roundabout, and only worked for digital copies, leading many to suspect that the game was not meant to be made available widely yet- something that was confirmed when access to the game was revoked a few hours later.
Speaking about this incident, Microsoft’s Major Nelson apologized, clarifying that the game is not on the Xbox One’s Xbox 360 backwards compatibility whitelist.
“Microsoft tests all Xbox 360 games with our emulator to ensure a quality experience across a breadth of titles. Due to an error, some of the games currently in test were accidentally made available. We have since removed access to those games, and apologize for any confusion this may have caused. We will have more information on upcoming releases soon.’
Red Dead Redemption was released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2010, and currently remains the most requested Xbox 360 game to be made playable on the Xbox One via backwards compatibility. Rockstar, on their part, have not made any indication that they intend to support Microsoft’s backwards compatibility initiatives thus far.