Xbox Series X | S Can Run Emulators in Retail Mode Again Thanks to a New Workaround

Shortly after their release in late 2020, the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S became some of the best emulation machines around, thanks to the ability to run emulators easily on them. The fun, however, did not last for long, as Microsoft eventually made changes that prevented UWP emulators from running on the consoles’ retail mode. Now, it seems like a workaround has been discovered to get these emulators running again in this mode.

As reported by Modern Vintage Gamer in a new video, the new workaround was developed by UWeaPons Store, a team of developers that worked on select UWP emulators. Originally, running any UWP emulator on the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S in retail mode required following a certain procedure to get access to “retail” versions of emulators straight from the Microsoft Store, taking advantage of a loophole. The new workaround doesn’t work much differently on the surface, as the team set up a Patreon page that grants subscribers retail access again. While profiting from this is likely to elicit a reaction from Microsoft, it’s still nice to learn that running emulators on current-generation Microsoft consoles in retail mode is possible once again, although for how long remains to be seen.

Given its low price, compared to the Xbox Series X, the Xbox Series S is an excellent emulation machine. While it’s not as powerful as the other current-generation console by Microsoft, it is capable of running many games at decent levels of performance, such as GameCube games like Metroid Prime, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Wii games like Super Mario Galaxy and many others.