Xbox One exclusives, including Crimson Dragon, Rare Replay, and Halo 5: Guardians—a fifth mainline installment of the sci-fi shooter series from 343 Industries that, while originally released in 2015, remains absent from The Master Chief Collection—may soon be available to play on Windows PCs, according to a new update shared by the developers behind XWine1, an Xbox One translation layer that is currently in development. The translation layer, which is technically distinct from an emulator but delivers similar functionality, enabling games designed for one platform to be played on another, is already capable of running six games, including Sonic Mania and Minecraft, per screenshots shared on social media.
Xbox One exclusives include:
- Halo 5: Guardians (2015)
- Rare Replay (2015)
- Crimson Dragon (2013)
- Forza Motorsport 5 (2013)
- Powerstar Golf (2013)
- Space Jam: A New Legacy – The Game (2021)
- Forza Motorsport 6 (2015) (“There was a massively cut-down, free-to-play PC version of the game, known as Forza Motorsport 6: Apex.”)
- Forza Horizon 2 (2014) (“Also on Xbox 360 but that is a different version with different features and inferior graphics.”)
- CrossfireX (2022) (“Also had a Series X version but is now Offline.”)
- “Various Kinect and Indie games”
The original word from the @XWineOne account, including supported titles:
Introducing XWine1, an Xbox One translation layer for Windows PCs.
— XWine1 (@XWineOne) September 8, 2024
Currently six games are fully playable, with others reaching logos and in-game. More news to come! pic.twitter.com/Du6puJz6Dj
An explainer on the difference between translation layers and emulators:
Xbox One and PS4 (and the current gen consoles too) both use X86 processors and conventional modern graphics hardware, which is the same architecture PC uses. Therefore no emulation of CPU instructions, which is what emulators do, is necessary. What is necessary is translating the various console-specific system calls and APIs into the system calls and APIs available on PC. Ergo, translation layer.