If you’ve ever had a lingering curiosity wondering if PlayStation games can be played on an Xbox, well, they can. Technically.
A modder named Devran Cosmo Uenal has built an early version of a PS5 emulator for the Xbox Series X, according to Boy Genius Report. The project, called PS5X, can already run a small selection of PS5 games on Microsoft’s console, though not especially smoothly.
For context, an emulator is software that imitates another device’s hardware. Consoles are essentially specialized computers, and their games are built to run on that specific hardware. An emulator tricks a game into thinking it’s running on the machine it was made for, even when it’s actually on a PC, a phone, or, in this case, a rival console.
Emulation sits in murky legal territory. In the U.S., emulators themselves are generally legal because building software that emulates a console’s hardware isn’t illegal in itself. However, downloading copies of a video game you don’t own is copyright infringement.
Mashable Light Speed
PS5X is a port of KytyPS5, an open-source PS5 emulator for PC. Uenal adapted it to run on the Xbox Series X. BGR reports that the Xbox version lags behind the PC original but already produces impressive results for such an early project.
Early is the keyword here, as the list of games PS5X can play is very short. Uenal’s YouTube channel shows a PS5X game library that includes Gex Trilogy, Hellboy: Web of Wyrd, Marvel Cosmic Invasion, and Quake 2. These are smaller titles, which are usually the first to work on a new emulator. BGR says they’re playable but not polished, with minor glitches and performance problems. In Uenal’s footage, Quake 2 swings between roughly 20 and 40 frames per second, well short of the steady frame rate players expect.
BGR notes that bigger games may follow soon. A recent interface update from Uenal shows Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Gran Turismo 7 in his library, which BGR reads as evidence that the games are being tested. The biggest hurdle is graphics. KytyPS5 draws its visuals using Vulkan, a graphics system widely used on PCs. The Xbox doesn’t support Vulkan. It uses Microsoft’s own system, DirectX.
PS5X should improve as the PC version does, since it’s built on KytyPS5. The PC emulator has advanced quickly in recent months. According to BGR, it can now run Astro Bot and Demon’s Souls without crashing, though often at single-digit frame rates, and GTA 5 is fairly playable on high-end PCs.
PS5X hasn’t been released to the public. When it is, BGR reports that Xbox owners will be able to install it by switching their console into developer mode, a setting Microsoft offers for testing homemade software.
