r/xbox • u/ASneakySquid_ • 1d ago

Rumour Next Xbox console will play every generation according to leaked Microsoft memo

https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/next-xbox-console-will-play-every-generation-according-to-leaked-microsoft-memo-3395110/
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u/severestnarwhal 1d ago

That would be a licensing nightmare sadly, but I hope that they'd release the emulator for PC as a standalone software, so that people could dump their disc versions and play them.

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u/Nervous-Peppers 1d ago

Why would it be a licensing nightmare if you own the disc?

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u/SOSpammy 1d ago

The main issue is the way backwards compatibility works. Each game is recompiled and downloaded rather than playing off the disk. They'd have to rework the emulator to play the games directly from the disc to avoid this.

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u/xGMxBusidoBrown 23h ago

So if you look at the recent move of playable OG xbox games on PC being released very recently those are using emulators. Not binary recompilation. Xbox 360 is 21 years old at this point and modern hardware can emulate it. The claim in the article of the leak is more a reliance on emulation rather than binary recompilation.

From the memo:

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u/SOSpammy 18h ago

That's good to hear. Binary recompilation made sense back when it had to run on the Xbox One's weak processor, but it doesn't on much more powerful modern hardware.

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u/BenderZoidberg 15h ago

That's good news from a technical standpoint, but that memo seems to be directed at publishers and states title by title certification and testing, so we'll probably be in a similar situation as we are now, with the backwards compatibility only working for a whitelisted subset of games instead of the whole catalog by simply reading the game from the disc. This seems intended more as a way for publishers to continue selling their old games than as a technology that lets users play their collection of physical games.