Xbox Backward Compatibility Coming to PC - News
by William D'Angelo , posted 1 hour ago / 329 Views
Microsoft has announced Xbox Backward Compatibility is coming to PC. This makes it easier to play older Xbox games on PCs and PC handhelds, including ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X.
Four original Xbox titles are now available to play on PC - BLiNX: The Time Sweeper, Conker: Live and Reloaded, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, and Fuzion Frenzy.
The Xbox team is working to being achievements to original Xbox games on both consoles and PC. the first four titles will be updated in the coming the months to with achievements.
Read details below:
Today, we’re introducing XBOX Backward Compatibility on PC, making it easier to play classic XBOX games from the past across PC and handhelds, including the ROG XBOX Ally and XBOX Ally X.
Your library is more than just a collection of games. It is your personal history of epic stories and treasured memories from the past. And as players, we don’t want to leave our gaming legacy behind even as technology continues to evolve and advance. We expect our library of games to move forward with us and to be able to play them in entirely new ways.
Rolling out today, XBOX Backward Compatibility on PC launches in early release, starting with four classic original XBOX games, now playable on PC and handhelds for the first time ever. This marks the beginning of a broader effort to preserve XBOX games from the past and bring them to PC over time. And we are not just enabling you to play them on PC. We are also adding new features to make your gaming experience better than ever.
Players can jump into the following games on PC and supported handheld devices beginning today in supported regions:
- BLiNX: The Time Sweeper
- Conker: Live and Reloaded
- Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge
- Fuzion Frenzy®
Each of these games is now available for purchase on PC and also included with all XBOX Game Pass plans. If you already own a digital license for these games on console, that license now carries over to your PC or handheld. Through the power of XBOX Play Anywhere and XBOX Cloud Gaming, you can now play these classic games from the past on your XBOX console, cloud, PC and handheld.
In addition to making these games available on PC for the first time ever, we’ve added new features to enhance the experience on PC while preserving the original gameplay. Players can customize graphics settings, including up to 4x resolution upscaling, VSync support, Fullscreen and Windowed display modes, anisotropic filtering, enhanced anti-aliasing, and more. These games also include customizable language and audio settings.
We plan to add even more features to XBOX Backward Compatibility games in the future. I’m excited to share that later this year we will be bringing one of the top fan-requested features to select original XBOX games on both console and PC: Achievements. The first four games releasing in preview today will be updated to include Achievements in the coming months.
Getting started is simple. If your PC or handheld meets the minimum system requirements below, you’ll be able to access backward compatible titles through the XBOX on PC app.
Minimum system requirements:
- GPU: Nvidia GTX 950 or AMD Radeon RX 550 or Intel UHD 770 or Intel Arc A310
- CPU: Min 4 Cores Intel Core i3-8100 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 or AMD Ryzen™ Z2 A Processor
- RAM: 8GB
- OS: Windows 11
- Drivers and Versions: Latest Version as of January 2026
Recommended specifications:
- GPU: Radeon RX 68005 or Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti or Intel Arc A770
- CPU: 6 cores and 12 threads Intel Core i5-10400 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme
- DirectX Version: DirectX12 API, Hardware Feature Level 11
- GPU VRAM: 8GB
- OS: Windows 11
- Drivers and Versions: Latest Version as of January 2026
XBOX Backward Compatibility on PC is another step toward preserving the games from the past and making it easier for you to enjoy and play more of the games you already own across the devices you use every day.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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Amazing news!!!
Glad to see my 400+ Xbox games are going to continue to be playable going forward!!!
Obviously been in the works for months but interesting timing given Gears 2/3 were just ported to PC last freaking week by the community lol
Great news, looking forward to the updates and newest games.
I swear if they announce that they're bringing back the BC program and include the likes of Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon Orta, and Project Gotham Racing, I'm gonna lose my mind!
I put in my disc for Stubbs the Zombie a few months ago only to find out it's not BC. Hopefully they add it some day! This gives me hope.
Awesome! It would be great if they added achievement to OG Xbox titles on console as well, along with more games of course.
They are adding achievements to OG Xbox titles.
"I’m excited to share that later this year we will be bringing one of the top fan-requested features to select original XBOX games on both console and PC: Achievements. The first four games releasing in preview today will be updated to include Achievements in the coming months."
Oh nice! Gives me a reason to play Conker Live and Reloaded again.
I'll likely replay Crimson Skies once achievements are added. I remember really enjoying the game when it was new.
Sounds logic to me.
At start and before - Xbox brand always was treated like PC.
Available where? Microsoft Store only or Steam as well? Microsoft has been releasing most, if not all, of their games on Steam as well for a long time now, but I'm not convinced this backward compatibility program is going to be available on Steam.
So, this is probably how they will get Project Helix to be fully backwards compatible. It seems like they are manually porting the games over though, so surely that will take a lot of time.
I wonder if they’re working on some kind of AI that will port the games over…
