Most of the 'Halo' series will be backward compatible on Xbox One soon

Almost the entire Halo series will be playable on the Xbox One soon thanks to Microsoft's backward compatibility initiative, Halo developer 343 Industries revealed Thursday.

The Xbox One will be backward compatible with Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (a.k.a. the Xbox 360 version), Halo 3, Halo 3 ODST, and Halo 4 "soon," joining the Xbox One's growing list of backward compatible titles. There was no mention of Halo 2 or Halo: Reach in the announcement.

The four Halo games will be playable either with their original discs or available to download through the Xbox Store. Each game includes all DLC available for free as well as full multiplayer support, including LAN crossplay between the Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

More details about the games' release timing will be revealed at a later date.

Halo 2 fans will have to stick to the version of the game found within the Halo: The Master Chief Collection for Xbox One, which includes the original Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4. The collection, which came out in 2014, released with a handful of problems, primarily affecting online matchmaking.

Hopefully the launch and support of the backward compatible Halo games won't be as poor as that for the collection.