Activision has released a new Call of Duty game every year for the last 11 years, and that started in 2005 with Call of Duty 2 on the Xbox 360. Now, in 2016, you can head back to that World War II shooter on a Microsoft’s most recent console.
Call of Duty 2 is available to play now on the Xbox One. Microsoft and Activision have worked together to bring the Xbox 360 version to the modern system through backward compatibility. This enables people who own the game on disc or digitally to play the game on the newer Microsoft Xbox, which is notable because Sony’s competing PlayStation 4 does not have this feature. Developer Infinity Ward debuted it back when the Xbox 360 debuted, and it is widely considered one of the better launch games for Microsoft’s second console. So while plenty of people are anticipating Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare in November, you can go back right now to experience the game that kicked off Call of Duty’s annualized efforts in the $99.6 billion gaming industry.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":2036404,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,","session":"A"}']Call of Duty 2 is coming to Xbox One Backward Compatibility today https://t.co/qPMRNrLoTQ pic.twitter.com/4pOr7eVg33
— Larry Hryb, Gamer Emeritus ?⌨️?️? (@majornelson) August 23, 2016
Call of Duty 2 is an important game to get on Xbox One for another reason as it helps define the lineage of Infinity Ward games on consoles before Infinite Warfare launches November 4. After Call of Duty 2, Infinity Ward would later go on to define the Xbox 360 generation of systems with 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. That modern military shooter turned into a phenomenon and was the top-selling release of the year. Since then, Call of Duty has topped the sales charts in the U.S. every year except for 2013 (due to Grand Theft Auto V).
While Infinity Ward is preparing Infinite Warfare, it is also updating Call of Duty 4 for modern systems. It is going to release this remake as part of an Infinite Warfare special edition.
Now, if Activision will only give the approval to Microsoft to add backward compatibility to Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3, the Xbox One could end up as the ultimate Call of Duty console.