{"id":198551,"date":"2025-06-20T01:01:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T01:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/198551\/"},"modified":"2025-06-20T01:01:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T01:01:15","slug":"report-xbox-working-on-massive-backwards-compatibility-overhaul-called-xbox-classics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/198551\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Xbox Working On Massive Backwards Compatibility Overhaul Called ‘Xbox Classics’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Original Story:<\/strong> It was just recently that we heard from Spanish YouTuber eXtas1s<\/a> about release dates and pricing for the ROG Xbox Ally handheld<\/a>, and now they’re back again with another video today – this time talking about Xbox backwards compatibility<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In their video, they mention that according to a source of theirs that works inside Microsoft, Xbox is embarking on an “ambitious” project with a provisional name of “Xbox Classics” (and they insist this name could easily change), dedicated to focusing on original Xbox and Xbox 360 emulation.<\/p>\n

They advise it’s a “new advanced emulation platform” that should offer big benefits across multiple systems:<\/p>\n

\n

“What Xbox is working on is a new advanced emulation platform, designed to run classic Xbox 360 and original Xbox titles with stability [and] graphical improvements – full integration with Game Pass, PC, current consoles, portable devices like the ROG Xbox Ally, and of course, the cloud.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

It’s suggested that Xbox might divide this announcement into “two large waves” in 2026 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the brand<\/a>, although eXtas1s isn’t sure what specific dates those might be.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, they also say that Microsoft has “established a direct collaboration” with the team behind the unofficial Xbox 360 Xenia emulator in order to make this possible. That’s pretty crazy if true!<\/p>\n

They reveal a “shortlist” of games that are said to be getting “optimisation on this new emulation platform” as well, with these including Fable 2, Skate 3, Gears of War 3 and Batman Arkham Asylum. These games will apparently now be “more stable” with “fewer errors, a better frame rate and also optimised to run on both PC and in the cloud”.<\/p>\n

That’s not the whole list by any means, as a bunch of games are apparently being evaluated for technical and licensing compatibility – eXtas1s reels off a few other potential titles such as Def Jam: Fight for New York, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Castle Crashers, Darksiders 2, Prince of Persia (2008), Skate 2 and Left 4 Dead 2.<\/p>\n

\n

“The goal, as I understand it, is not just to bring back nostalgia, but for these video games to be played better than ever – even on portable hardware like the ROG Xbox Ally and the cloud, on a smart TV or on a mobile phone.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Finally they sum up their video report by explaining that Xbox is betting on three “simultaneous versions for each game” in the form of a console version, a PC version and a cloud version. This would be a significant overhaul compared to the current system which is only optimised for console on Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.<\/p>\n

Obviously this is all just a rumour \/ report and not official information for now, so take it with a pinch of salt. There are a lot of details that are being shared though, so we’re hopeful this overhaul will come to fruition at some point in 2026.<\/p>\n

What do you make of this? Let us know down in the comments section below.<\/p>\n

[source youtube.com<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\"Fraser<\/p>\n

Fraser is the News Editor at Pure Xbox, where he spends his time reporting on the biggest stories in the world of Xbox and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Original Story: It was just recently that we heard from Spanish YouTuber eXtas1s about release dates and pricing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[17537,53,16,15,289,80436],"class_list":{"0":"post-198551","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-backwards-compatibility","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-xbox","13":"tag-xbox-classics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114712994672989607","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198551","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=198551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}