For several years, Microsoft has actually leaned greatly into comprehensive backwards compatibility throughout numerous generations of Xbox hardware as a significant selling point for its consoles. Today, that effort broadens past the console community, making choose initial Xbox titles formally playable (and buyable) on Windows PCs for the very first time.

The properly and candidly called “Xbox Backward Compatibility on PC” program begins today with compatibility for BLiNX: The Time Sweeper Conker: Live and Reloaded Crimson Skies: High Road to Revengeand Fuzion FrenzyPC gamers can download each title for $10, however those with Xbox Game Pass memberships or existing digital licenses for these video games on console will have instantaneous gain access to without an extra purchase (no such luck if you merely stick an initial Xbox disc in your PC drive, alas).

Playing these older Xbox titles on PC allows some reward visual functions like Vsync assistance, anisotropic filtering, improved anti-aliasing, and approximately 4x resolution scaling of the initial SD signal (to 2560 × 1920). Games are restricted to their initial frame rates and element ratios, however, which indicates a 30 fps 4:3 image. Microsoft states this very first batch of video games need to be playable with 11-year-old GTX 950 graphics hardware, however suggests a 2017-era GTX 1070 Ti with 8GB of VRAM for finest efficiency.

Early screening from Digital Foundry discovered the PC experience comparable to playing the very same video games on an Xbox Series X. That stated, the testers reported weak anisotropic filtering, some frame timing problems that caused “jerky cam movement,” and “a handful of visual bugs” throughout the preliminary wave of titles.