If you're interested in trying out Xenia for yourself, head over to Xenia's Github and be sure to read the FAQ. Without this work, many of the best Xbox games of all time could end up lost forever. Even games Microsoft 'owns,' like MechAssault, have never been ported to modern systems owing to apocryphal legal issues that will never fully come to light.Īs Xbox 360 consoles die off due to wear and tear, increasingly, it will fall on the homebrew scene with ROMs and emulators of dubious legality in some territories to ensure these pieces of art are preserved for the future. Due to licensing issues, there are many games that are only available to play on modern Xbox consoles via a disc, if indeed they're available at all. Still, you have to assume that one day the Xbox 360 marketplace most likely will shut down, rendering you unable to download Xbox 360 games that aren't available on Xbox One or Xbox Series X|S consoles via backward compatibility.

Microsoft retracted that note, and said it was made in error. Right after, Microsoft 'erroneously,' said that it planned to shut down the Xbox 360 marketplace in its entirety as soon as May 2023.

The project announcement comes quite hot on the heels of a mix-up from Microsoft, who stated last week their intent to remove some digital Xbox 360 games from sale. All the footage in the above video was reportedly captured on an Xbox Series X, and represents titles that aren't available via traditional backward compatibility. As is often the case with arbitrary restrictions by license holders, the homebrew scene will often come through and offer an alternative solution. The website states that the project initially began when the developer purchased some region-locked games in Japan, and found that he was unable to play them on their home console. Xenia is available via the official research project page and its Github.

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