Somebody has got Morrowind running in a browser tab, Halo: Combat Evolved has been dragged onto the web too, Windows games are running on Apple Silicon Macs without anyone asking permission, and Xbox says some of the biggest games around have even been remixed into the source code of other games, and I'm old enough to remember when publishers hated this kind of thing, so it’s interesting that Xbox now wants a piece of it with Xbox Labs, a new initiative announced by CEO Asha Sharma.
It sounds like a smart move from Sharma, who brought in disc-to-digital tech that seems to put gamers first and change how we access games. It also feels like acceptance, as mentioned: Morrowind running in a browser tab. But if it means we can finally play Halo 2 online again, experience Fable's quirks, and maybe even a renewed Ubisoft King Kong, then Labs sounds interesting.
Labs is a small team of game makers, engineers and scientists led by Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet, and the pitch is making great games easier to access, giving old games new life and letting more players become creators and co-creators; although, according to a company spokesperson, it’s mostly pulling together projects that were already underway rather than starting from scratch, and nobody new has been hired.
Is Xbox Labs an AI project?
The focus is three things, porting games to Apple Silicon, looking at browser distribution through WebAssembly and WebGPU (which Sharma says is closing in on 90% global browser support) and developing and supporting modders, which is territory Nvidia has been working in for a while with RTX Remix, its open-source toolkit for remastering classic games, and some projects will likely reach players as features in the Xbox Insiders programme while others turn up through different channels, with Van Vliet saying it won’t be limited by scale, so AA and indie games are in the frame at least to begin with.
That could be a big deal for game preservation, because older games tend to get stranded on ageing hardware or stuck waiting for an official port (see today's Toy Story 3 review) that never turns up, and anything that makes them easier to run without a publisher commissioning a full remaster is good news for the retro games that would otherwise just quietly vanish.
AI gets a mention too, with Sharma arguing that games share the traits that made coding the first big workload for AI agents, and pointing out that people spend more than 72 billion hours a year playing Xbox games, roughly five times the time spent writing code worldwide, but the spokesperson was clear that Labs hasn’t been told to use AI and will only reach for it where it’s useful or necessary, which is a very different tone to Epic’s AI-first Disney game, and Microsoft’s own Muse AI experiment for generating gameplay still looks more like a proof of concept than anything that will remake your favourite games, so don’t expect a pile of AI-generated ones.
Today we're standing up XBOX LABS (https://t.co/dJSufI1vni). Here is the note that I sent to the team: Team, The first video games emerged some 75 years ago. In the time since, there have been booms and busts, but every year there are more great games to play, more devices to play them, and best of all, more people than ever playing. That growth helped make XBOX what it is today, and we've helped shape the industry in return, from bringing hard drives to consoles and online gaming through Xbox Live to Game Pass and cloud gaming, alongside franchises that have brought millions of people together. In recent weeks, we've seen games rapidly decompiled and rebuilt to run on hardware they were never originally designed to support. Windows PC builds have been translated to run on Apple Silicon or ported to run inside a browser through WebAssembly and WebGPU, the latter now approaching 90% global browser support. Perhaps more surprisingly, we've seen many of the biggest games in the world have been remixed into the source code of another. These experiments challenge long-held assumptions about our industry: the tether between software and hardware, the boundary between creation and play, and how people discover and experience games. While it is hard to predict the future of gaming, it is easy to see the possibilities in making great games easier to access, giving old games new life and allowing more players to become creators and co-creators. These are unmistakably good outcomes for players, even when (and sometimes because) they challenge our existing business models. To explore these possibilities, I’ve asked Scott to stand-up XBOX LABS, a small group of game makers, engineers and scientists whose job is to turn emerging ideas into things our players and developers can experience. We'll build in the open, learn from what people do, and measure success by whether more people are playing and creating. I think XBOX has an important role to play here. Coding became the first major workload for agents because they can write, run, and test software. Games share many of those same properties, and people spend more than 72 billion hours a year playing XBOX games, roughly five times the estimated time spent writing code worldwide. We've spent 25 years learning how to make great games, and I want our game makers to help shape what these new technologies make possible. As we learn, we’ll share the tools we build with developers across the industry, just as we always have. Our priorities aren't changing. We remain committed to the 4Cs, to making great games, to our hardware and to being responsible stewards of IP and the communities built around it. LABS gives us a way to explore new technology that is game design led without abandoning the work already underway. AshaOctober 13, 2026
Where does remixing leave Xbox’s IP?
But there's an aspect to Labs that Xbox hasn’t revealed yet or tackled – because publishers own valuable IP and have built businesses on controlling how their games get distributed, how will a fan-made port compete or complement the official release of a retro remaster or rerelease, as a remix could pull in characters, assets, or code the original developer never signed off on.
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Sharma’s pitch is that Xbox’s priorities aren’t changing: it’s still committed to making great games, to its current and future console hardware, and to being responsible when it comes to protecting old game series and IP, as well as the communities around those games. Labs lets gamers and fans explore new tech without abandoning official work already underway, which is reassuring, but it doesn’t say where the line is when players start remixing games they don’t own.
There are no release dates yet; Xbox says it will build in the open and judge success by whether more people are playing and creating, and until we see what comes out of Labs, and how this rubs alongside IP holders' own projects, it feels like a gamble (and Microsoft is notorious for launching ideas and cancelling them). I'm happy to wait and see how this pans out.
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Ian Dean is Editor, Digital Arts & 3D at Creative Bloq, and the former editor of many leading magazines. These titles included ImagineFX, 3D World and video game titles Play and Official PlayStation Magazine. Ian launched Xbox magazine X360 and edited PlayStation World. For Creative Bloq, Ian combines his experiences to bring the latest news on digital art, VFX and video games and tech, and in his spare time he doodles in Procreate, ArtRage, and Rebelle while finding time to play Xbox and PS5.