Xbox Web Browser Demo Teases A Big Return For Classic Xbox 360 Games

It’s only been a week since Microsoft’s Xbox gaming division announced the formation of Xbox Labs, which is focused on leveraging AI to deliver games in new and interesting ways, and it appears to already be paying dividends.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma took to social media to highlight a post from Scott Van Vliet, which shows dashboards from the Xbox 360 generation running inside a web browser. She asked players, “do we like this experiment?” while specifically mentioning the Xbox 360’s Blades user interface.

While Sharma only asks about the Xbox 360’s original dashboard, Vilet’s video also shows the New Xbox Experience and Metro dashboards running, encompassing the evolution of user interfaces players saw during the Xbox 360's lifespan. An interesting aspect of the video shows that whoever is at the controls is easily able to switch between the interfaces.

We aren’t able to see a game running to get an idea of performance, however. During the last few seconds of the video, you can see that Halo 3 is launched, but the video cuts off before getting past the game’s splash screen. That’s not unexpected given it’s still early days for Xbox Labs.

It’s a bit disappointing the company didn’t share more information about how this all functions, as in its original announcement it pledged to “build in the open.” Hopefully, once the project is further along, those involved can write up a blog post about the process and explain the inner workings.

Although this is just a glimpse of what the company is hoping to accomplish with Xbox Labs, players will likely be excited about the possibilities of enjoying old favorites or experiencing games that have long been locked to Xbox consoles.