TimeSplitters 2 Is Finally on PC: What Xbox’s 21 New Original Xbox Games Really Add, Which Ones Were Never on PC Before, Why Only Six of 25 Are on Game Pass and Which Three I Would Play First

Xbox’s headline number this week is 21. The number I keep coming back to is five.

On Nov. 12, as part of its 25th-anniversary celebration, Xbox added 21 original Xbox games to its backward-compatibility program on PC, bringing the library to 25. The announcement leans on names people love, from Knights of the Old Republic to Morrowind. But when I checked each game’s release history, only five of the 21 could be confirmed as games that never had a Windows release: both TimeSplitters games, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Another five were PC games first. I did not trace the other eleven, so I make no claim about them.

That split changes how I read the news. It is a nice gesture, and for a small group of players it is a real win. It is not 21 lost classics coming home. Below I sort the list, show what sits on Game Pass, say what bothers me about the rollout and give my three picks to play first.

What Xbox actually announced on Nov. 12

According to Xbox Wire, as the outlets covering it reported, the 21 games became available on Nov. 12 in supported markets. They join four original Xbox games that reached PC earlier this year: BLiNX: The Time Sweeper, Conker: Live and Reloaded, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge and Fuzion Frenzy. Here are the basics in one place.

• AnnouncedNov. 12, 2026, during Xbox’s 25th-anniversary celebration
• Library25 original Xbox games on PC: 21 new, plus the four from earlier this year
• NeedsWindows 11, a download from each game’s Xbox store page, and a supported country
• ControlsMouse and keyboard supported on all 25
• Game PassSix of the 25, the rest are purchases
• AchievementsFour games: both Knights of the Old Republic titles, BLiNX and Conker
• PricesNone listed in the announcement

A few details matter more than the headline. The four achievement games are the first original Xbox titles to get achievements at all. Xbox says they also appear on Xbox One and Series consoles after the latest system update, and that some may unlock from progress you already have. Microsoft also says more original Xbox games and more achievements are on the way, but it named no titles and no dates.

One more detail, reported by BigGo Finance: original Xbox discs do not grant PC digital entitlements. If you have a shelf of old discs, the shelf is still just a shelf.

Sorting the 21: rescues, repeats and the eleven I did not trace

I sorted the list with one question: was this game ever released for Windows? The answer splits the 21 into three groups of very different sizes.

Eleven of the 21 are Star Wars games, which is more than half the batch. That is the first thing I would tell anyone excited about the number. The second is that the Star Wars pile is not one thing: some of it never touched a PC, and some of it was a PC game before it was an Xbox port.

The five real rescues

These are the games where backward compatibility on PC is the only official way to play them on a computer.

• TimeSplitters 2

  Free Radical Design’s shooter came out in October 2002 on PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. TechBriefly reports that neither TimeSplitters game had an official PC port before now and that attempts to revive the series have failed. The studio was formed by former Rare developers and the series was pitched as a successor to GoldenEye and Perfect Dark. This is the headline of the batch, and for once the headline is right.

• TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

  The sequel arrives alongside it, with the same history: console-only until now. Play the pair and you get a good look at how a mid-2000s console shooter holds up with a mouse in your hand.

• Grabbed by the Ghoulies

  Rare’s 2003 brawler was an Xbox exclusive and has stayed on Microsoft’s side of the fence. It is also one of only two new additions on Game Pass, which makes it the cheapest way to try something truly new to PC.

• Star Wars: The Clone Wars

  Pandemic’s 2002 action game was released on GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox, with the Xbox version arriving in April 2003. Wikipedia lists a Metacritic score of 71 for the Xbox edition. It counts as a rescue because it was never on PC, not because anyone was begging for it.

• Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

  The 2005 movie tie-in came out on PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS and drew mixed reviews. Same verdict as above. A curiosity, and a welcome one for completists.

The five that were PC games first

For these, the Xbox app version is a different way to own a game you could already play on a computer. TechBriefly noted that native PC versions of Battlefront II, Jedi Outcast and Knights of the Old Republic were already available.

• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

  A PC game first, in 2002, and it is on Game Pass here. TechBriefly points out that the Xbox build differs from the native PC edition and lacks the PC version’s mod ecosystem. For a game whose community lives on mods, I would keep the PC original.

• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

  BioWare’s RPG reached Xbox on July 15, 2003 and Windows that November, according to GamesFinity. What is new is achievements, and the same goes for the sequel. If you never played it, the achievements and the Xbox app are a fine reason to start.

• Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy

  Both were PC shooters before they were Xbox ports. Nothing here you could not already run.

• Star Wars Battlefront II

  A native PC version already existed. The Xbox app adds mouse-and-keyboard support on the console build and the convenience of one library.

My take: the honest pitch for this group is convenience. One outlet argued the bigger draw is achievements, playing inside the Xbox app and using the same purchase on console and PC. That is a real feature. It is not a rescue, and I wish Microsoft’s framing made the difference clearer.

The remaining eleven are the ones I did not trace. I am listing them so nothing is hidden, not to make a point about them.

• Armed and Dangerous
• Disney’s Chicken Little
• Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb
• Red Faction II
• Secret Weapons Over Normandy
• Thrillville
• Star Wars Battlefront
• Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter
• Star Wars: KOTOR II – The Sith Lords
• Star Wars: Republic Commando
• Star Wars: Starfighter – Special Edition

What is on Game Pass and what you have to buy

Game Pass matters here because the announcement says a game purchase or a subscription may be required, and then lists no prices. The split below comes from the Game Pass markings in iGame Magazine’s and Rolling Out’s lists.

The three I would play first

A caution before the ranking. I have not run these games through the Xbox app, so this is a play order built on three yardsticks, not a performance review: can I play it on PC anywhere else, what does it cost to try, and does it get something new here?

1. TimeSplitters 2

   Never on PC, and mouse-and-keyboard support on a 2002 console shooter is the most interesting experiment in the whole batch. The price is the open question.

   Never on PC beforeBuy onlyNo achievements listed
2. TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

   Same reasoning, same caveat. If the first game clicks, this one is the natural next step.

   Never on PC beforeBuy onlyNo achievements listed
3. Grabbed by the Ghoulies

   The lowest-risk pick. It never had a PC release, and if you already pay for Game Pass, trying it costs nothing extra.

   Never on PC beforeOn Game PassNo achievements listed

If you are a Star Wars fan who has never played the BioWare games, I would add Knights of the Old Republic as a fourth, because it is the one big name that gets achievements. If you already own it on PC, keep what you have.

What bothers me about the rollout

• There are no prices.Nineteen of the 25 games need a purchase, and the announcement lists none. A buy-or-wait decision with no number is not a decision.
• Windows 11 and supported countries only.Anyone on an older version of Windows, or outside the supported markets, gets a press release and nothing else.
• Disc owners get nothing.BigGo Finance reports that original Xbox discs do not grant PC entitlements. For a program celebrating a 25-year-old console, that stings.
• The count flatters the news.Twenty-one sounds like a library. Five were never on PC, five were PC games first, and Morrowind arrives as the console build without PC mods.

For perspective, when Xbox turned 20 in 2021, Microsoft added 76 older games to console backward compatibility in one drop, as Happy Gamer recalled. These are different programs on different platforms, so I would not call the comparison fair. I still think it shows how small 21 is when the anniversary is the whole sales pitch.

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