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We recently covered Microsoft's Xbox back-compat for PC efforts, which bring four original Xbox games to Windows 11 PCs. That release contained code that hinted towards Xbox 360 titles also being part of the programme, and now The Verge is reporting that these games are indeed on the way.
Jay Peters and Tom Warren at The Verge state that a "leaked document" sent to developers recently contained details of the plans, with Xbox 360 titles becoming playable on Project Helix, Microsoft's next-gen console, "Xbox PCs" (presumably just PCs running the Xbox app) and handheld devices.
Extant Xbox 360 game developers (and presumably, rights holders) would be able to opt into making their titles backwards compatible, with the ability to set prices and control whether the game is made part of Xbox Game Pass. The Verge report goes on to say that the feature should roll out between 2027 and 2028 (ie in the run-up to the anticipated next-gen launch period) across "next-gen devices".
The document also reveals a date for the full launch of original Xbox titles on PC: October 2026. The back-compat programme as it stands now only includes four games, so this would be Microsoft's opportunity to push the boat out with more games from both first-party and third-party studios.
Microsoft's rumoured disc-to-digital programme is also detailed. Players that insert an Xbox One or Xbox Series game into one of these consoles will be granted a digital license to that game, tied to their account and accessible on all devices they're signed into. If the same disc is later used on a different person's account, the license is moved to that person. This allows for used game sales and disc sharing, which is nice to see. The reason this works at all is that Microsoft added individual licenses to game discs back in the Xbox One era, so the tech is finally proving useful.
The disc-to-digital programme was set to launch in beta last month with a full launch in August, but has since been delayed. It's not clear what the new timings will be, but the programme certainly doesn't seem far off.
What do you make of Microsoft's post-reset plans? Let me know in the comments below.
[source theverge.com]
Comments 14
I do find it funny that a feature of Xbox One's much maligned adorably always online policy is now a whole 13 years later a useful feature for the disc-to-digital programme. Crazy.
Well, it's a credit to Microsoft in a time when Sony deletes a whole game generation's library of games that people 'owned'.
Would be fascinating to know whether the unique ID per optical disc was applied only by Microsoft (with an eye on the future, back in the old Xbox One launch days) and not by Sony … despite it being an optional part of Blu-ray specs.
It's such an epic win for Xbox and I truly wish I could do this for my PS4 library of discs … before I switched to digital. Otherwise one has to double-dip and rebuy games for NO DISCOUNTS or BARELY DISCOUNTED … perhaps that's the Sony plan?
Anyway, clear win for Microsoft vs Sony here.
It would have been nice if that disc to digital feature worked with 360 discs as most of my discs are 360 games. That said, I look forward to not having to insert my Forza Horizon 2 disc to play that game anymore.
Sony really did twist the knife when the microsoft Xbox one was at E3. I do feel that the shoe is on the other foot now. Yes it's a win for Xbox with tech we all didn't like when it was announced. It's funny how the so called good guys turn bad and the bad guys are just misunderstood.
@themightyant and for all the flakbrhey took, and the solid W they handed to Sony PR. Now Sony (and I assume MS though they still have wiggle room to announce they keep discs possible) is going to have a system that has to always be online soooooo there's that I guess.
@StooMonster be a bigger and clearer win if MS came out out and said oh btw, we will have a disc drive in Helix.
@MartinAshford I think MS could return the favor if they would announce that Helix would have a disc drive as an option. Even if it's just an addon it'd be a clear PR win.
Sony can't back track now, because they didn't just say oh our system won't have a drive, but that they were not even going to make discs.
@StooMonster Totally agree. Would be good to have some clarity on whether Sony also has unique ID's on their discs, either PS4, PS5, both or none so they could in theory do similar, even if they didn't have to.
There is a lot of misinformation online right now and it would be good to have it cleared up. Anyone the wiser about this at DF @wsjudd @Rich_Leadbetter? Disc to digital feels like a killer feature imo.
It is so great to read that Microsoft are bringing over Xbox 360 games over to PC via emulation as well as I found I owned two of the four initial Xbox releases they released last week and bought one of the other two, Conker Live & Reloaded (obviously, look at my avatar!) which I still own on disc. I also own a few 360 games digitally too, which I bought when I used my Xbox Series X.
It's just a shame that in order to access these games I have to use the lacklustre Xbox app, which has a tendency to break games with updates and throw up unhelpful messages like "Something went wrong, please try again later" and vague error codes that are no help whatsoever.
In fact, all three of the emulated Xbox games ended up getting broken on my Windows 11 PC and no amount of verification and resetting/reinstalling the Xbox app would fix it. I even moved them to another drive, which which triggered an "Unsupported 16-bit executable" warning! In the end, I uninstalled and redownloaded all three games and, lo and behold, they are working again... until the next update breaks them, I guess.
This is one of the reasons I cancelled my GamePass subscription back in May 2024 and now just buy Xbox games on Steam, where oddly enough I never experience any of these issues. Isn't that strange?
Anyway, rant over, this push for Xbox and 360 emulation on PC means that I can finally sell my unused Xbox Series X and ditch the console for good but still have access to the small library of classic Xbox and Xbox 360 games.
That is good because I am ditching consoles next generation, including the PS6, which no longer interests me due to Sony killing physical discs for games (that for me was one of the key reasons to own consoles).
@themightyant Unlikely to get comment from Sony, which means we'd need to "reach out" to the PS4/PS5 hacking community. I'll see what can be done.
@themightyant OK so I did look into this a little bit and this is probably the best information available: https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps4/Disc_Identification/Serialization_Data
I'm not sure I see any data there or any combination of data that could uniquely identify a PlayStation disc but the truth is, only Sony knows for sure.
Thanks @Rich_Leadbetter, I wasn't expecting you to go digging that is appreciated, just wondered if any of you knew offhand. Only time will tell if Sony has this, though i'd expect not.
Would be quite a coup imo if Xbox was able to do this and Sony isn't.
Though personally I wish this was the other way around as I have a lot of discs on PS4/5 but Xbox has more successfully moved me to digital with Game Pass and Play Anywhere.
One thing that puzzled me is if Xbox One and Series X|S discs have always had the disc ID that will allow them to convert them to a digital licence, then why did the discs need to be in the drive to play them? Could they not have automatically associated the disc ID with the Xbox account and bypassed the need for disc verification years ago?
I love having games on disc for that sense of ownership and having something tangible of value but dislike having to swap discs. Microsoft could very easily have implemented the disc ID to user account thing years ago allowing people to build up a digital library without ever realising.
Since the disc ID transfers to the new user if it is sold then it prevents people from buying a game, installing it and then selling it on (although there would be a period between the sale and the new owner playing the game which would allow the previous owner to still play it).
I have no interest in either next-gen console at this point but I am curious as to what Sony has planned for transferring PS4/PS5 discs over to a digital licence. I wouldn't be surprised at this point if they have nothing planned and just expect players to rebuy the games again digitally.
I have over 150 PS4 and PS5 games on disc so the only way I would have even considered buying a PS6 is if those were accessible as discs on the new console. I can't see them making an optional disc drive just for legacy games somehow and I don't think the games discs have individual IDs like Xbox ones do either to easily transfer the licences over.
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