Xbox has officially kicked off Backward Compatibility on PC, letting players boot up original Xbox games on their computers and PC handhelds for the very first time. The rollout is live now in early release, and it marks the start of what Microsoft is calling an ongoing plan to bring its older library forward onto modern hardware.
Xbox Kicks Off Backward Compatibility
Xbox Handheld | Credits: Asus ROG Ally
Four original titles, namely BLiNX: The Time Sweeper, Conker: Live and Reloaded, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, and Fuzion Frenzy, are playable today, i.e., July 22, 2026, through the Xbox on PC app. All four of them can be bought individually, and all four are also included with every tier of Xbox Game Pass, so subscribers don’t need to pay extra to try them out.
Additionally, anyone who already owns a digital license for these games on console gets that ownership carried over automatically to PC or a supported handheld, with no repurchase required. The games run through a combination of Xbox Play Anywhere and Xbox Cloud Gaming, so they’re playable across console, cloud, PC, and handheld devices rather than being locked to one screen.
PC Gets New Features
Backwards compatibility is here on PC | Credits: Xbox
Microsoft isn’t just porting these games over as-is. The PC versions are picking up visual and performance upgrades that weren’t available on original Xbox hardware, including resolution upscaling up to 4x, VSync support, anisotropic filtering, and improved anti-aliasing.
What’s more? Achievements are also on the way. Microsoft says it will add achievement support to these original Xbox titles on both console and PC later this year, with the four launch games getting the feature in a future update.
To play, PCs and handhelds will need to meet a minimum set of system requirements:
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
Which classic Xbox game do you want to see added to PC next?
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
