Psychonauts headlines next 360 BC update?

Source: A list spotted on Microsoft's official UK Xbox 360 backward compatibility site, and later pulled.

The official story: A Microsoft representative was cagey about the issue, but said there hadn't been an official update to the list.

What we heard: In June, Double Fine Productions' Tim Schafer told fans to petition Microsoft to have his latest creation, the Xbox platformer Psychonauts, added to the list of Xbox 360 backward compatible games.

"I want you to...send Microsoft a heartfelt message," Schafer wrote on the Double Fine news page. "Something to the effect of, 'I am a 9-year-old boy in the hospital, dying of consumption, and my last wish is to play Psychonauts on my XBOX 360!' (Please, try to make up your own disease.)"

Yesterday it appeared that the campaign had worked, as Psychonauts was among a list of 31 newly backward compatible titles that surfaced on the official Xbox 360 site. However, the list was quickly pulled from the site and replaced with that of the August compatibility update, leaving the status of the update (and whether or not Microsoft listens to the pleas of dying children) up in the air.

But even for the brief time it was visible, there were a number of eyebrow-raising entries. In addition to Psychonauts, two other games that fared better critically than commercially were among the new titles. Atari's Indigo Prophecy (also known as Fahrenheit) was on the list, as was Sega's Shenmue II. Other games on the list included I-Ninja, Dead or Alive Ultimate, Destroy All Humans!, and Ultimate Spider-Man.

However, there were some indicators that not everything with the update list was kosher. Among the games marked as new additions to the list were Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis and All-Star Baseball 2005, but both of those had been included in the August update.

Given the overlap with the previous backward compatibility update and the haste with which it was withdrawn, it seems a safe bet that the list wasn't actually final when it was posted. The question is, How much of the list was rooted in reality, and how much of it consisted of placeholder names?

Bogus or not bogus?: A little bit of both. There's probably another update coming, but the list that leaked isn't entirely accurate.