Recently, there were rumors circulating about the Xenia Canary team working with Microsoft on an official Xbox emulator for PC, which was thought to be part of an extended backward compatibility project promoted by the Redmond-based company. This rumor suggested a potential convergence between consoles and Windows, but the official response from the team clarified the matter.
Official Response from the Xenia Team
Xenia team post official response about rumoured collab with Microsoft on next gen Xbox backwards compatibility.
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It turns out the rumor was denied by the team, with a clear message addressing the questions surrounding the supposed collaboration. The developers behind Xenia Canary stated that they are not working with Microsoft on an official emulator.
The idea of such a collaboration had generated some excitement due to the emulator’s success. Xenia is capable of running original Xbox and Xbox 360 games on PC, and it could serve as an important foundation for complete Microsoft console emulation on Windows.
However, as of now, this is not the case. Microsoft is apparently continuing its work independently within its own teams. There is even a dedicated division focused specifically on developing software to ensure compatibility with Xbox consoles.
No Collaboration, for Now
“Hey everyone, I just wanted to clear some confusion regarding a rumor that has recently surfaced online,” reads the official message from the Xenia team posted earlier.
“The Xenia (and Xenia Canary, by extension) team is by no means associated with, nor working alongside Microsoft in any capacity. Microsoft uses their own emulation to provide backwards compatibility on Xbox One/Series consoles and as such has no reason to collaborate with Xenia, even if they decided to bring these titles to PC.”
“Xenia continues to be a community-run effort that encourages and enforces legal emulation practices both in development and within this server.” Therefore, there appear to be no direct connections between Xenia and Microsoft at this time. We are still waiting for further information regarding Microsoft’s projects in this area.
