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A comment on Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc. Parent comment

Re:Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc by pseudosavant on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @03:07PM (#49173408)
For games that require online services, this will always be an inherent issue. But for games that don't, I'm betting on emulation continuing to save the day. When the PS3 was released with its complex/novel architecture, it seemed like an emulator was highly unlikely, but look at how good RPCS3 is now.

On the Microsoft side, they've been incredibly good about first-party backwards compatibility. I bought most of my Xbox 360 games digitally, and I have been able to play them on my Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and now they are even bringing them to PC. My son and I were just playing the timeless classic NBA Jam: On Fire Edition (a 15yo game) a couple of days ago.

Emulation development will probably be significantly enhanced by the ability to use LLMs as well.

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Re:Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc by fluoridation on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @06:18PM (#49176005)
>look at how good RPCS3 is now

My understanding is that it's nowhere near the state of, say, PSX emulators around the turn of the century. There's still swaths of late 2000s and 2010s releases that are unplayable without the original hardware.

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Re:Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc by pseudosavant on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @07:13PM (#49176578)
RPCS3 has come a long way in the last few of years, both in performance and compatibility. Even Metal Gear Solid 4 is supposed to be playable (albeit using game patches) now. And emulating the PS3 architecture, with those weird Cell SPUs, has to be one of the most difficult emulations to implement.

I'm continually impressed by the emulation scene's passion for maintaining access to older games. LLMs/agents will be a force multiplier for that kind of skill and passion.

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Re:Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc by pseudosavant on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @07:32PM (#49176699)
I guess I view 75% compatibility of the most oddball console architecture ever to be fairly successful. And it is still meaningfully gaining. It was 70% at the start of the year.
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Re:Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc by fluoridation on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @07:28PM (#49176680)
Yeah, but I wouldn't put it forward as an example of a great success of game preservation. It may reach that point some day, but it's not there yet.
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