We've seen this week how the Nintendo Switch 2 will be using emulation to run Switch 1 games, and the result is a small, but notable list of titles that apparently still have issues running on the Switch 2 at the time of writing.
This is nothing new in the world of Xbox. You may recall that the Xbox 360 featured a form of backwards compatibility with original Xbox games, and it too used emulation to run them - with wildly varying results. Some games performed perfectly, but I can say from experience that the likes of WWE Raw and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban are full of slowdown and glitches!
Xbox has done a wonderful job getting so many original Xbox and Xbox 360 games to run flawlessly on modern consoles, but a lot of work went into that - every one of them had to be tested thoroughly to achieve such great results.
Now, it seems the work has begun again. Reports have stated that a new game preservation and forward compatibility team has been set up inside Xbox for the next generation, and if we're looking at a Windows-based console and handheld that are in the works, trying to emulate console games for those devices might be a harder task than ever.
I'm assuming all the Xbox One titles that work on Xbox Series X and S were mostly good to go without any major changes - but that may not be the case with the next Xbox console and handheld. We could be talking thousands of titles that need to be re-tested and re-jigged in order to make them ready for the next console generation.
The good news is that Team Xbox seems very committed to the cause - let's hope all that hard work pays off!
