Key Highlights:
- Xbox might be looking for a way to get legacy titles running on Windows PCs.
- This includes games from the Xbox and Xbox 360 era.
- There is no telling that they will succeed, but it sure is nice to see Xbox try and preserve gaming history.
Backwards compatibility has started to become an important factor in consoles now, with Xbox leading the program, at least in its console division. The PC side of Xbox has been largely ignored for long, and the arrival of the Xbox ROG Ally handhelds felt lackluster (and most certainly expensive!).
Microsoft and Xbox might finally be ready to counter that, with a rumored way to run Xbox 360 games on Windows handhelds, likely with the power of emulation.
Xbox Is Trying to Make Legacy Games Work on Windows, It’s Claimed
According to a comment on ResetEra’s forums, Microsoft and Xbox are making ‘an effort’ to bring legacy Xbox 360 and Xbox games (those without PC ports) to both its ROG lineup and Windows as a whole.
The ROG lineup refers to the Xbox Ally handhelds, in white and black.
It should be noted that this should be taken at face value for what it is, an attempt from Xbox. There’s no saying whether they will succeed, but it sure is nice to see Microsoft attempt to preserve decades of gaming history.
How far they will go into this venture remains to be seen though. Game licensing is a tricky affair, especially for legacy titles, which are all over the place. There’s also the fact that Xbox will need to develop it’s own, in house emulation software and integrate it into the Xbox app for it work seamlessly.
Emulation isn’t a magical do it all, and some games work a lot worse compared to others. Maintaining a similar level of polish on all titles is something Xbox should not compromise on.
How Would This Even Work?
In a nutshell, with the power of emulation. There is no way the Xbox and Xbox 360 code will run natively on Windows x86 PCs. While both generations share a lot of similarities with PC tech, there is no other way to get the game up and running on modern PCs.
We’ve already had emulators for both the original Xbox and Xbox 360 for quite some time now though, so it isn’t a particularly new concept. However, compared to the likes of shadPS4 and RPCS3, these are far more limited in their nature.
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There’s also the fact that Xbox needs to use their own in-house emulator instead of relying on already existing code. In other words, they would need to build from scratch which takes a while.
Now that we’ve established that emulation is the only way forward, we should also keep in mind that Xbox will want to integrate it in a way that blends into the Xbox PC app, without interruptions or annoying Windows pop ups.
This involves running all GUIs together, and setting a default, persistent graphics profile for its ROG devices.
Why This Is Important
While emulation isn’t perfect, it is our best bet at preserving important moments in gaming history (and of course, the entirety of gaming’s varied history in of itself).
Xbox endorsing the use of emulators to preserve games would be a massive step in the right direction, and something we should all strive for.
More so when we have game companies who choose to willfully lay waste to entire IPs and target well wishing players choosing to preserve that legacy.
