Microsoft announces Xbox Backward Compatibility for PC — will let gamers play classic console games on PCs and handhelds

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Including the new Xbox ROG Ally lineup

Xbox Ally
(Image credit: Xbox)

Xbox has announced a new Xbox Backward Compatibility for PC program, which will let gamers play a selection of classic Xbox titles on PCs and handhelds, a move the company says marks the beginning of a bigger push into Xbox game preservation. The announcement begins with four titles that can now be played on PCs and handhelds, including the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X.

"This marks the beginning of a broader effort to preserve XBOX games from the past and bring them to PC over time," the company said in a blog post authored by Xbox "VP next generation" Jason Ronald. Alongside backward compatibility, the company says games will also include new features. The four titles in the announcement are:

You can now buy all of these games on PC, and they're also included in all Xbox Game Pass plans. Anyone who already owns these titles digitally on console can also now play them on PC or handheld, with support for Xbox Play Anywhere and Xbox Cloud Gaming. Crucially, this appears to be a digital-only preservation effort, so it won't help anyone who only owns physical copies of these games. Xbox has reportedly been testing a way to digitize physical games as far back as Xbox One, but that hasn't yet materialized yet.

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Alongside the preserved original gameplay, Xbox claims these games will let users customize graphics settings, with up to 4x resolution scaling, VSync support, Fullscreen and Windowed modes, anisotropic filtering, and enhanced anti-aliasing, with more features to come in the future. Notably, Xbox will add achievements to select original Xbox games on console and PC.

Users who want to play these titles will need to meet the following system requirements:

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Spec:

Minimum requirements

Recommended specs

GPU

Nvidia GTX 950 or AMD Radeon RX 550 or Intel UHD 770 or Intel Arc A310  

Radeon RX 68005 or Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti or Intel Arc A770 

CPU

Min 4 Cores Intel Core i3-8100 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 or AMD Ryzen Z2 A Processor  

6 cores and 12 threads Intel Core i5-10400 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme 

RAM

8GB

8GB

DirectX

N/A

DirectX12 API, Hardware Feature Level 11 

OS

Windows 11   

Windows 11

Drivers

Latest Version as of January 2026 

Latest Version as of January 2026 

Microsoft's emphasis on preserving older games is particularly noteworthy given recent backlash against Sony over its decision to end physical games with its next console generation, and the shuttering of some of its online stores. While Xbox's digital emphasis on game preservation still can't match the solidarity of physical media preservation, the timing of this announcement seems like more than just a coincidence.

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Stephen Warwick
Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen is Tom's Hardware's News Editor with almost a decade of industry experience covering technology, having worked at TechRadar, iMore, and even Apple over the years. He has covered the world of consumer tech from nearly every angle, including supply chain rumors, patents, and litigation, and more. When he's not at work, he loves reading about history and playing video games.

10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • TerryLaze
    Wooooow a whole 4 games and you have to already own them digitally, look at all that preservation.
    *enter 'the sound of music' meme here*

    Will be extremely interested to see if these actually are "backwards compatibility" or remakes/masters, for a lot of their previous ones you had to download a whole new version of the game.
    Reply
  • usertests
    What's going on under the hood, Xenia Xemu emulator?

    I think legal problems outweigh technical. It shouldn't be difficult to put an OG Xbox disc in Xbox Series S or PC and play it.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    usertests said:
    What's going on under the hood, Xenia Xemu emulator?

    I think legal problems outweigh technical. It shouldn't be difficult to put an OG Xbox disc in Xbox Series S or PC and play it.
    Yeah, that's why I'm thinking that it's remakes, if they use an emulator you could just stick your old disk in and it would work but they make a point of it only working for digital license.
    Reply
  • thestryker
    TerryLaze said:
    Will be extremely interested to see if these actually are "backwards compatibility" or remakes/masters, for a lot of their previous ones you had to download a whole new version of the game.
    They aren't remakes or remasters unless titled as such. All of their backwards compatibility to date has effectively been game specific emulation and/or code recompilation. Due to this even when using a disc backwards compatibility has always required some form of downloading.
    usertests said:
    I think legal problems outweigh technical. It shouldn't be difficult to put an OG Xbox disc in Xbox Series S or PC and play it.
    There's no problem either way because on the console side you can just pop in the disc to get the download. I'm not really sure why they haven't enabled this on the PC side of things unless it has to do with the authentication they use for disc drives on console.
    Reply
  • excalibur1814
    SSX.

    I want that game.
    Reply
  • VizzieTheViz
    Fable 2 and 3 please, and I’ll give MS some money. Especially if they make them use ssd for decent load times.
    Reply
  • usertests
    TerryLaze said:
    Yeah, that's why I'm thinking that it's remakes, if they use an emulator you could just stick your old disk in and it would work but they make a point of it only working for digital license.
    Microsoft’s original Xbox games on PC reportedly run through the Xbox 360’s XeFu emulator
    Developer Nathan, also known as TheLunarixus, has now inspected files from the PC release of Fuzion Frenzy. According to his findings, the package contains XEX2 and STFS markers associated with Xbox 360 software. It also includes kernel strings such as “XENON KERNEL EXITING.”
    The Windows implementation reportedly runs an Xbox 360 environment first. That environment loads XeFu, which then runs the original Xbox game. In basic terms, the PC emulates the Xbox 360 software needed to operate Microsoft’s existing original Xbox emulator.

    This means the original x86 game is handled by software designed for the PowerPC-based Xbox 360, which is itself running on a modern x86 PC. Despite the additional stage, Microsoft lists a GeForce GTX 950, Radeon RX 550 or Intel Arc A310 as the minimum GPU. The minimum CPU requirement is a Core i3-10300 or Ryzen 3 3100.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    usertests said:
    Microsoft’s original Xbox games on PC reportedly run through the Xbox 360’s XeFu emulator
    Classic MS bloat, using emulation inside emulation...
    Makes it even weirder that you can't just use your original discs.
    Reply
  • usertests
    TerryLaze said:
    Classic MS bloat, using emulation inside emulation...
    Makes it even weirder that you can't just use your original discs.
    It made me laugh because I have an i3-10105 which is a rebranded i3-10300 (same clocks).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xemu_(emulator)
    As of 2026, Xemu supports 80% of games considered being playable according to the website.

    The tubers should do a head-to-head comparison.
    Reply
  • F1NATIK
    Making us rebuy our games to play again is NOT backwards compatibility, it is corporate greed. Anyone who thinks otherwise is stubborn and stupid. Backwards compatibility is being able to put my already purchased games in a machine and PLAY THEM.
    Reply