Getting RetroArch on your brand-new Xbox isn't as simple as just inserting a USB drive and puttering away. Ars has confirmed that a new build works on the Xbox Series X as well, allowing your new console to pretend to be anything from an Atari 2600 to a Wii, with a whole lot of consoles in between.

That version launched in Alpha in 2019 and has been updated sporadically since. By 2016, though, Microsoft officially opened up the Xbox One, allowing registered Universal Windows Platform (UWP) developers to load and test content directly onto a stock retail console.Įnter Libretro, which decided in late 2018 that it would commit to creating an Xbox One-compatible UWP build of its popular emulator package. After promising that functionality in 2013, there were signs that Microsoft was thinking of abandoning those plans in 2014. Further Reading UWPs on Xbox: Microsoft wants apps, not gamesThe installation vector here comes not through an unforeseen security hole, but through Microsoft's policy of allowing any retail Xbox One console to become a full-fledged dev kit.