Emulation remains a hot topic within the gaming community. For many, it’s considered a necessity as it is the only way to play certain video games, whether it’s because they never saw a worldwide release or because they are no longer widely distributed. While it is championed by some, others view it as no different from piracy.Nintendo, in particular, is infamous for actively targeting websites which hosted ROMs of its games and forcing them to shut down, even if the sites weren’t making any money.Xbox’s Phil Spencer, however, believes that emulation is both important and something the games industry itself should be embracing.
Speaking with Axios, Phil Spencer, the executive vice president of gaming at Microsoft, advocates for software emulation, something Microsoft’s modern consoles – the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S – already do. Manyoriginal Xbox and Xbox 360 gamesare playable through these new consoles because of emulation, with Microsoft recently adding one last batch of such titles to them.
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Spencer’s hope is for the industry to work on what he describes as legal emulation, essentially allowing modern hardware to run older games. He also believes game preservation is important. Many games are near impossible to access via legal means because the consoles they were released for are no longer supported. Games preservation has become another hotly discussed topic, especially as the industry pushes towards an all-digital future.
For example, when Sony announced it would be shutting down the digital storefronts forthe PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, and PlayStation Vita, many took umbrage because it would mean so many games would become impossible to play. The backlash was so strong that Sony wound up backtracking (at least for the PS3 and Vita stores).
Microsoft isn’t the only one to use emulation. Nintendo, funnily enough, uses emulation for runningNintendo 64 games on the Nintendo Switch. However, it’s not necessarily a perfect solution. Those aforementioned N64 games have been criticized for unstable performances and other technical issues, with many fans arguing that they run better on unofficial emulators. Plus, rights holders would also need to be fully on board with it. Microsoft’s decision to no longer add older Xbox games to the newer consoles through backwards compatibility is due to rights and licensing issues.
Despite the issues, Spencer believes that emulation is the best path forward, saying that if the industry said that anybody should be able to buy or own any game, it would be a “North Star” moment. TheXboxexec isn’t the only one in emulation’s corner either. Gaming historian Frank Cifaldi also told Axios that emulation is the best path for re-releasing games made for now dead platforms, adding tat there simply isn’t a better alternative that is commercially viable.
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