For a limited time, when you pre-order Fallout 4 on Xbox One, you will be entitled to a free digital copy of Fallout 3, according to an update from developer Bethesda. Fallout 3 will be for Xbox 360, but in case you already got rid of your older console, it will be among the first 360 games playable on Xbox One through the backwards compatibility announced recently at E3.
According to the announcement, after pre-ordering Fallout 4, a code for Fallout 3 will arrive at your Xbox message center in 7-10 days. This can be redeemed on Xbox.com or on an Xbox 360. Once the code has been redeemed and the game added to your library, you will be able to download it onto your Xbox One. Xbox Preview users already have access to a limited number of compatible 360 games. The rest of us will have to wait until an unspecified time later this year when the feature will roll out more broadly.
Fallout 3 was Bethesda Softworks' re-envisioning of the classic late-90s RPGs, originally developed by Black Isle Studios. Released 10 years after Fallout 2, it switched from a third-person, isometric perspective to first-person view, integrating shooter mechanics into the free-roaming RPG structure.
Set in the Capital Wasteland in and around the ruins of Washington D.C., Fallout 3 established Bethesda as one of the premiere developers of open world RPGs, which the studio then cemented a few years later with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It also had some fantastic DLC, which will also be compatible with Xbox One, assuming Bethesda enables it.
Fallout 4, set in the greater Boston area, is Bethesda's long-anticipated return to the series, and looks to be one of the most ambitious open worlds ever created. It comes out for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on November 11, 2015.
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