Emulation via Xbox:

If you didn’t see it, Microsoft is making ‘Developer Mode’ free next month for the Xbox consoles, removing the $19 USD fee.

Emulating all kinds of systems is possible on the Series X/S consoles, and also on the One X (and I think even the One?!), which you do by sideloading Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps, in this case - emulators!!!

Systems that play and run well:

  • NES / SNES / Game Boy / GBC / GBA

  • Sega Genesis / Master System / 32X / Sega CD

  • Nintendo 64 – (runs well enough, though with some tweaks)

  • PlayStation 1

  • PlayStation Portable (PSP) (full speed on most titles)

  • Sega Dreamcast (not all games)

  • Nintendo DS – Playable with some touch/mouse emulation workarounds

  • Neo Geo / Arcade (MAME/FBA cores)

  • Atari, MSX, TurboGrafx-16, etc.

Systems that play, but maybe not perfectly:

  • PlayStation 2 (I found most games I was interested in worked really well, and there’s a ton of people who share their settings! The first time I finished MGS3 was on my Series X console maybe 2/3 years ago this way!)

  • Nintendo Wii / GameCube – Via Dolphin core in RetroArch, has decent performance all around, but not ‘perfect’.

  • Nintendo 3DS – Runs but limited by controls and UI workarounds and is kinda just not worth the effort in my opinion!

  • Sega Saturn – Some progress via cores like Yabause or Kronos, but compatibility varies.

A few years ago using your Xbox to emulate all kinds of games was super easy and free, done by Retail Mode. Then MS freaked out and only made it possible on ‘Developer Mode’ in mid 2023, which required that aforementioned one-off license.

Next month, it’s free for individuals, so…time to use your Xbox for emulation again! (I’d recommend it, anyway!)

An article sharing details on the fee being dropped is here via Windows own blog

And here is a link if you’d like to read more from a non-official source

And further, if you want to see what people can do with emulation on the Xbox, here’s a few video links on YouTube:

And finally, if you’d prefer a written guide (sorry, its on Reddit, I remembered it was a good source of information back when I was emulating on my Series X, and seems the most obvious community to link here!)

This guide has been posted detailing all that is needed to set up and run emulation, it is 'How To Activate Dev Mode And Install UWP Games And Apps’!