{"id":1129254,"date":"2026-08-04T05:39:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T05:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1129254\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T05:39:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T05:39:26","slug":"microsoft-is-bringing-xbox-360-games-to-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1129254\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft is bringing Xbox 360 games to PC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Building on its recently announced plans to bring original Xbox games to PC<\/a>, Microsoft is also planning to let developers bring their Xbox 360 games to PC as well, according to a leaked document, seen by The Verge, that was sent to developers recently. Xbox 360 games will be able to run on the next-gen Project Helix console, \u201cXbox PCs,\u201d and handheld devices, the document says.<\/p>\n

Microsoft has already said that Helix will play PC games<\/a>, so making these older Xbox titles available on PC helps build a broader Xbox library that can travel between devices, similar to what\u2019s already possible with Steam. Creating all these digital licenses also helps set up for a future of consoles without disc drives; Sony has already declared game discs dead<\/a>, and Microsoft may follow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With 360 games, developers can opt into making them backward compatible, and they will have control over things like a game\u2019s price and if it\u2019s available on Game Pass. The feature is expected to have a \u201cgradual\u201d rollout between 2027 and 2028 \u201cacross next-gen devices.\u201d The \u201cfull launch\u201d of original Xbox games on PC is also set for October 2026; the initial program announced in July included just four games.<\/p>\n

The document also includes details about a way for players to get a digital version of a game that they already own on a physical disc, which The Verge\u2019s Tom Warren reported on in July<\/a>. The document says that if a player puts an Xbox One or Series game on disc into an Xbox One or Series X console with a disc drive, they\u2019ll be granted a digital license that\u2019s bound to \u201cthat disc and the player\u2019s account.\u201d The license will stay with a player across Xbox devices, but if the disc \u201cchanges hands,\u201d the license will transfer to the new person. That should mean that gamers can still trade and sell discs; once the original owner of a disc does so, they can\u2019t play the digital version they got from that disc anymore.<\/p>\n

According to the document, a public beta for the disc-to-digital program was set for July with general availability set for August. We understand Microsoft had originally planned to test its disc-to-digital program with Xbox Insiders in July, but the beta was delayed. It\u2019s unclear if the timeline of August general availability is still accurate.<\/p>\n

The planned changes follow Microsoft\u2019s major Xbox \u201creset\u201d announced in July<\/a>, which included thousands of layoffs and the company selling off four studios.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Building on its recently announced plans to bring original Xbox games to PC, Microsoft is also planning to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[77,1583,507,12,326,53,16,15,289],"class_list":["post-1129254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-entertainment","tag-gaming","tag-microsoft","tag-news","tag-tech","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-xbox"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117035634914931005","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1129254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1129254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1129254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1129254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}