Phil Spencer on Xbox 360 Emulator for Windows 10: “Never Say Never”

Megalith

Megalith

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Blue Dragon and Halo: Reach on PC? Sure, why not. The Xbox boss is hinting that Xbox 360 games may be playable on Windows 10 in the future, although I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that he just likes to waste everyone’s time on Twitter. But if true, this would correlate well with Microsoft’s idea of being able to run your content on multiple devices (Play Anywhere). Plus, the library of backward compatible titles is at over 300 now and getting bigger at a steady rate.

The Xbox One's backward compatibility emulator for the Xbox 360 is one of the console's key differentiators against the competition, but what if it could be even more? In an exchange on Twitter, Xbox head Phil Spencer said "never say never" with regards to getting Xbox 360 games running on Windows 10 via emulation. Spencer noted that it would be difficult to get backward compatibility running reliably across all the different types of PC hardware configurations out there, but closed with some degree of optimism. The idea of getting the Xbox 360 emulator running on Windows 10 certainly fits in with Microsoft's "Play Anywhere" vision, by which your digital library of content travels with you, regardless of the device you're using. Naturally, the technical hurdles to get this running reliably would be significant, but the Xbox software engineering team seem to enjoy a challenge.
 
GameLifter said:
This would be really sweet!
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What games do they even have that are worth playing that aren't already on PC?

I've been playing around with CEMU (Wii U emulator) for the last few weeks. Not 100% perfect yet but it's pretty damn good.

Also, to nip this in the bud: No I don't care i
 
Spencer said:
Naturally, the technical hurdles to get this running reliably would be significant, but the Xbox software engineering team seem to enjoy a challenge.
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Our paid staff of professional engineers, software developers, programmers, designers and hardware folks can't possibly do something that members of the community, hackers and modders do for free, reasons...
 
NeoNemesis said:
What games do they even have that are worth playing that aren't already on PC?

I've been playing around with CEMU (Wii U emulator) for the last few weeks. Not 100% perfect yet but it's pretty damn good.

Also, to nip this in the bud: No I don't care i
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Honestly, it would just be fun to play around with. Maybe a more powerful PC could emulate the games better? Although most 360 games that had issues on Xbox One seem to be fixed now.
 
rather have a Windows 7 emulator for windows 10. as all pc games are just xbox ports anymore
 
rgMekanic said:
With how close console hardware is to PC hardware now I'm still surprised we haven't seen an Xbone or PS4 emulator out yet.
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If publishers would get on-board with the play anywhere feature you wouldn't even need an emulator for the Xbox One. Playing Forza Horizon 3 on my PC is amazing, being able to take my Xbox One to my friends house and resume from where I left off and only paid for the game once. To me this offsets some of the DLC concerns if I don't have to buy the game itself over and over. Nothing bothers me more recently is selling me the same game I've already paid you full price for. Rockstar I'm looking at you mostly. Learned my lesson after GTAV. I will wait for a PC version of RDR2. If they made it play anywhere I'd buy on Xbox One and continue playing on PC when it eventually releases.
 
rgMekanic said:
With how close console hardware is to PC hardware now I'm still surprised we haven't seen an Xbone or PS4 emulator out yet.
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They need to crack the copy protection first before they can start working on emulating the hardware. Which should be easy to do once they crack it.
 
I just want an Original Xbox emulator on the Xbox One, so I can truly play all my games on the Xbox One. The 360 Emulator is getting there. Most of my games are now playable on the Xbox One, but since the OG Xbox was pretty much a crappy PC, it should be easier to port than the 360.
 
That'll be awesome. I could finally play NHL on the PC again, which I should be able to anyway considering it's all the same API and EA should just put a download on Origin to profit off the minimal download costs and call it a day.
 
HockeyJon said:
That'll be awesome. I could finally play NHL on the PC again, which I should be able to anyway considering it's all the same API and EA should just put a download on Origin to profit off the minimal download costs and call it a day.
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Yar, this would be my primary reason for wanting the feature to come to Win10 PCs.

With that said, I'd be cautious with anything Spencer says. Still waiting for native KB+M support to come to XBone.
 
With PlayAnywhere (and lots of A+ games being ported to Steam), I haven't needed to buy an Xbox One game in forever. In fact I've only bought a couple since it launched.
At this stage I'd actually rather have a 360 emulator with AA and upscaling features like Dolphin has.
 
SeymourGore said:
Yar, this would be my primary reason for wanting the feature to come to Win10 PCs.

With that said, I'd be cautious with anything Spencer says. Still waiting for native KB+M support to come to XBone.
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Agreed.

I still think EA's nuts for not just having a download link on Origin. There is still a modding community for NHL 2007 to keep it updated. It's not as if the distribution costs are going to be so fantastically massive for EA to just have a download link sitting there on Origin to download a game already designed to work on Windows 10 that you can play with the XBox 360 controller you have hooked up to your PC anyway.
 
There were quite a few high-quality 360-exclusives NOT NAMED HALO that were never ported to PC, so I'd be up for this.

I already have the controllers MS, and you already have the emulator. What are you waiting for, you'd get a cut of every game sold on PC.
 
Eh I dunno. I can't think of a single 360 game that I would want to play on PC now.... except Mass Effect which is already on PC.
 
Burticus said:
Eh I dunno. I can't think of a single 360 game that I would want to play on PC now.... except Mass Effect which is already on PC.
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I'd love to play Red Dead upscaled with AA and possibly even an FPS boost. There's also the Ninja Gaiden, Gears sequels, and Burnout games.
 
Since we are already able to play XBox 360 games on the XBox One, this would not really be too much of a stretch.
 
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