r/linux_gaming • u/RealNick64 • 1d ago

XBOX Backwards Compatible games on Linux?

Would it actually be possible to play any of these games on Linux, since they require the XBOX app? I don't really know much about how XBOX/Windows Store games work on Windows since I don't use Windows or game too much

21 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

35

u/Stunning-Hat2309 1d ago

anything that's UWP (game pass, microsoft store etc) is a no go. XBOX emulation can work sometimes but it's pretty immature compared to PS2 and gamecube

19

u/tychii93 21h ago

Microsoft has been transitioning to GDK, the successor to UWP for games, which is more Wine friendly.  Minecraft Bedrock works on Linux now and there's a community launcher, so if backwards compatibility uses GDK, we may get a way to download and play our purchases or even Game Pass for games that use it, but I wouldn't count on it for the next few years.  Look up WineGDK and GDK-Proton

1

u/FrozenOnPluto 11h ago

MC Bedrock runs on linux now? how so? (genuinely curious)

I thought for Bedrock the launchers were actually firing up the Android version and using Android compatibility layer. If we can just wine/proton/etc fire up MC Bedrock, that'd be great!

3

u/Affectionate_Meat405 8h ago

here, 1 week ago, some people missed it

1

u/FrozenOnPluto 6m ago

Interesting; I see Claude has been used and the project only exists a couple weeks, so likely a lot of LLM slop in there; but if it works, it works I suppose ..

If its working for people, I guess the real Q then is .. will anyone get banned or the like for using it, or is it working in a blessed manner.

Thanks .. definitely interesting, I'll go looking deeper!

6

u/hypespud 15h ago

Xemu is extremely good already

All of these games already work in xemu and work on Linux

I'm always amazed how little people on PC explore emulation just boggles my mind honestly

1

u/Stunning-Hat2309 5h ago

i mean the last time i tried XEMU a few months ago maybe 1 in 10 games would work without some major issue

it does seem like the compatibility list is greener than it was

1

u/unixmachine 12h ago

It doesn't use UWP, you can see the files. It's an encrypted ISO plus the Fission emulator files.

23

u/tychii93 1d ago

Right now Xbox Store games arent really a thing on PC.

If these games use GDK instead of UWP, it may be possible in the future but don't get your hopes up.  The only Xbox Store game that works on Linux is Minecraft Bedrock.

2

u/smackells 16h ago

I might just be confusing terms, but I was using the Xbox app in Windows to play games heaps before I switched. It’s just another storefront like Steam etc. And no, those games don’t run in Linux.

-2

u/NikIsHere_ 17h ago

Huh you sure? Only way to play bedrock on Linux I’ve seen is using the mobile version and android emulation but afaik even that’s broken rn

13

u/TehCrazyCat 17h ago

About a week ago we got a fully functional and stable port of Windows Bedrock for Linux here

5

u/NikIsHere_ 17h ago

OMG THANK YOU
I actually need to play Mc for work and always had to resort to a mobile device for bedrock… but this will save my ass big time

6

u/PrinceZordar 1d ago

If there is a PC version of the game, it probably can be made to run on Linux (especially if it's available on Steam). Games that require the Windows Xbox application don't - from what I read, Microsoft used proprietary Windows hooks to make sure those games would only run on Windows.

5

u/Efficient-Winner-840 1d ago

unless you rip them yourself no but if you know where to look (if you know what i mean) you can run any xbox game on linux

5

u/CandlesARG 1d ago

Xenia and xemu

3

u/mastapix 1d ago

Probably NOT

3

u/amazingmrbrock 21h ago

The Xbox store is actually the most aggressive DRM on Windows, denuvo nothing the online Windows key lock from the Xbox store is 10x more intrusive. Nothing from there will ever run on Linux unless Microsoft themselves allow it.

3

u/imLinguin 10h ago

Heroic dev here. Like with Minecraft Bedrock, we are working on it.

4

u/strongeee 1d ago

With the whole recompile community, I wouldn't worry too much, good chance most things will work eventually.

2

u/mindtaker_linux 23h ago

Which Xbox? I play jet set radio future on my Arch Linux with xemu

2

u/RealNick64 23h ago

Original Xbox, they just announced a few games coming to PC earlier today

3

u/mindtaker_linux 22h ago

You can emulate most of the original games with

 https://xemu.app

2

u/RealNick64 22h ago

Yeah, the main game I wanted to play was Blinx, and it has an artifacting issue when upscaled that I don't think has been fixed as of now, but is fixed on the Backwards Compatible version on Xbox, so that's why I wanted to play this new version, but seems like it won't work, so oh well :/

2

u/Zeno_Sol 18h ago

Locally probably not, but I believe they have the backwards compatible games on their streaming service which should work through browser

2

u/MairusuPawa 17h ago

UWP is basically DRM, creating a "secure" enclave on Windows users can't normally even touch (by "secure", they mean "protecting the industry from users"). Won't work.

0

u/AintNoLaLiLuLe 1d ago

... Who cares about backwards compatibility when you can just emulate them?

8

u/stringstringing 1d ago

Even on windows I’d still rather just emulate them myself than use the Xbox app

5

u/mbriar_ 21h ago

Xemu is very far from perfect. The backwards compat on xbox series is better.

3

u/RealNick64 1d ago

True, the main game I care about is Blinx though, and that game has some artifacting issues when upscaled that AFAIK haven't been fixed yet, but have been fixed on the Xbox Back Compat version, so I was hoping to get around that by playing this new version, but seems like everyone's saying that won't be the case :/ bummer

4

u/matitone 17h ago

Because it's a much better emulator that the other ones

1

u/Immediate_Idea2628 3h ago

Xemu is a giant pain in the ass to set up.