The Xbox E3 conference this year had several big announcements, including the plans to provide backwards compatibility for original Xbox titles. One extra tidbit of information, however, is further plans for Xbox emulation, at least according to Xbox head Phil Spencer.
In an interview with PC Gamer, Spencer said that he would love to bring emulated Xbox games to the PC. Spencer talks about how difficult emulation is, however, citing it as one of the obstacles in the way of Microsoft. He did, however, say original Xbox games are easier to contend with.
"The original Xbox, OG Xbox, is a little bit easier, because that was an x86 chip it was running on. Obviously when we think about UWP and the ability for games to run across console and PC, we're getting closer. I want developers to be able to build portable applications, which is why we've been focusing on UWP for games and even apps that want to run on multiple devices." - Phil Spencer, head of XboxIn addition to Xbox Emulation, Spencer also stated he wants to bring over the Xbox Game Pass, the $10 monthly subscription that grants access to a library of Xbox 360 and Xbox One games, to the PC as well. According to Spencer, he has been putting pressure on the marketing team to push more content on the PC. "It's a business model that I think could be good for creators, and when business models work for creators, it usually means good content will come for gamers," said Spencer. "I like that. We don't have the deep catalog of games on PC that we do on console, so I've had some pushback from the marketing team that, well it wouldn't necessarily be the best feature right now because we won't have enough games, but I just want to start."
Spencer is hoping to push more PC content for Microsoft and to shore up the Windows Store and UWP, both of which, according to Spencer, need improvement.
What are your thoughts on Spencer's remarks? Leave your comments below and please be sure to check out the rest of our E3 coverage at our E3 coverage hub.
