Dataminers have discovered an Xbox 360 emulator hiding within the Xbox PC backwards compatibility

Published Jul 24, 2026, 3:14 AM EDT Simon is a Computer Science BSc graduate who has been writing about technology since 2014, and using Windows machines since 3.1. After working for an indie game studio and acting as the family's go-to technician for all computer issues, he found his passion for writing and decided to use his skill set to write about all things tech. Since beginning his writing career, he has written for many different publications such as WorldStart, Listverse, and MakeTechEasier. However, after finding his home at MakeUseOf in February 2019, he would eventually move on to its sister site, XDA, to bring the latest and greatest in Windows, Linux, and DIY electronics. Sign in to your XDA account Summary Microsoft used an Xbox 360 emulator to emulate original Xbox games via Xefu on PC. This means that Windows machines already have officially supported tech to emulate Xbox 360 games. Official releases of Xbox 360 titles for PC are unconfirmed, but things look promising. A few days ago, Microsoft surprised the gaming world when it announced that four original Xbox titles were getting a PC release via the Xbox Store. To ensure the games run properly on a computer, Microsoft bundles the games with an emulator. However, dataminers have since dug through the code, and they discovered that Microsoft actually used an Xbox 360 emulator to get the job done, opening the door for more potential releases in the future. Microsoft's original Xbox game emulator can run Xbox 360 games, too Officially supported Xbox 360 titles on Windows may be coming soon Credit: Microsoft As spotted by True Achievements, the news broke when X user TheLunarixus made a post explaining the situation. After they took a look at how Microsoft got original Xbox titles running on Windows, they discovered that it used an Xbox 360 emulator running Xefu. Xefu is what the Xbox 360 used to emulate original Xbox games, so it's basically an emulator running within an emulator. But if Microsoft emulated original Xbox games through an Xbox 360 emulator, what's stopping it from running the Xbox 360 emulator as-is and emulating Xbox 360 games with it instead? As it turns out, not much. The XWineOne X account posted that, with a bit of tinkering, you could leverage the emulator to play Xbox 360 games instead. It does come with "varying degrees of success," but it's possible. Is this proof that Microsoft will also release Xbox 360 titles on PC? Nothing is confirmed right now, so we can't say for sure. However, we do now know that the technology to do that is already on people's Windows devices, and all it'd take is for Microsoft to actually use that tech to bring the Xbox 360 catalog to PC. So, things look promising, at the very least.