Successes are also on the way for the first Xbox games.
Game preservation is a hot topic right now amid Sony’s decision to stop manufacturing PlayStation discs. Xbox has arguably done a better job in recent years thanks in large part to its backwards compatibility efforts on consoles. It is now expanding them to more platforms thanks to the Xbox backward compatibility program on PC.
“Your library is more than just a collection of games. It’s your personal story of epic stories and precious memories from the past,” wrote Jason Ronald, vice president of next generation at Xbox, in a blog post. “And as gamers, we don’t want to leave our gaming legacy behind, even as technology continues to evolve and advance. We hope that our library of games will evolve with us and be able to play them in entirely new ways.”
The initiative is in “early release” starting today, as four games from the original Xbox are now available for the first time on PC and portable devices. These are Blinx: The Time Sweeper, Conker: Live and Reloaded, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge And Fuzion Frenzy. They are available on all levels of Game Pass. If you already own a digital version of any of these games on Xbox, you will now have access to them on PC and handheld as well.
These PC versions include several improvements, including customizable graphics settings, VSync support, improved antialiasing, and language options. While the spec requirements are quite modest (some of these games are a quarter of a century old, after all), you’ll need to be running Windows 11 to play these games on PC.
“This marks the start of a larger effort to preserve Xbox games from the past and bring them to PC over time. And we’re not just letting you play them on PC. We’re also adding new features to make your gaming experience better than ever,” Ronald wrote.
With this in mind, achievements for certain original Xbox games are in preparation for both PC and console. In the coming months, Xbox will add achievements to the first four games in this initiative. It plans to bring more Xbox games to PC eventually.
It was recently reported that Xbox was working on a separate program that would allow players to digitize their games to disc. As such, they wouldn’t need to have a game disc in their Xbox One or Xbox Series X to play it. The report suggests that Xbox has only just started testing this project – which pairs a digital version of a game with a specific disc – so it may be a while before it is announced.
