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PS5 games now run on Xbox Series X: 10 frames per second

Rive News Research Desk

Published · 5 min read

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Key takeaways

  • An emulator called PS5X can boot PlayStation 5 games on an Xbox Series X.
  • It only works in Microsoft's Developer Mode, not on a normal Xbox.
  • Sony's Astro Bot boots on Xbox, but it crawls at about 10 frames per second.
An Xbox wireless controller on a table
An Xbox wireless controller. The PS5 emulator on Xbox Series X is played with this controller.Image: Wikimedia Commons

PlayStation 5 games are now running on an Xbox Series X. A developer ported an open-source PS5 emulator to Microsoft's console. The catch is huge.

The games run slowly. You cannot install the emulator on your own Xbox yet.

What happened

Developer Devran Cosmo Uenal showed the world in a September 8 YouTube video. He booted the PlayStation 5 version of Quake II on an Xbox Series X. He then played it with an Xbox controller, according to Engadget.

The emulator is called PS5X. It is an Xbox port of KytyPS5, an open-source PS5 emulator. Uenal got three more PS5 games working alongside Quake II, Engadget reported.

Those four games are GEX Trilogy, Hellboy: Web of Wyrd, Marvel Cosmic Invasion, and Quake II. All four take Xbox controller input. Some of them have working sound.

Quake II runs at roughly 25 to 45 frames per second in Uenal's footage, TweakTown reckoned.

Then the story moved fast. A second port by developer @maccosmo booted Sony's mascot game Astro Bot on the Series X. That version runs at about 10 frames per second, Windows Central reported.

Ten frames per second is a slideshow, not a game. A smooth game needs 30 frames per second at least. Most modern games target 60.

Why it works at all

The Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5 use very similar chips inside. Both have eight AMD Zen 2 processor cores. Both use AMD RDNA 2 graphics.

Both ship with 16 gigabytes of GDDR6 memory.

Both consoles also speak the same basic computer language, x86-64. It is the same language that PCs use. So the emulator does not have to fake the whole PlayStation.

It acts more like a translator. It converts what a PS5 game asks for into something the Xbox understands.

That word "translator" comes from the emulator's own developer. On PC, KytyPS5 translates the PS5's graphics commands. It rebuilds game shaders for Vulkan, a graphics standard.

The Xbox port has extra work to do. The Xbox has no native Vulkan support. It must translate everything again into Microsoft's DirectX.

Each extra translation step costs speed.

Why it matters

For years, the console wars were simple. Sony games stayed on Sony boxes. Microsoft games stayed on Microsoft boxes.

A PlayStation game booting on an Xbox breaks that picture.

That is also why this news spread so fast. People searching "xbox" today ask one question. Can I play PS5 games on my Xbox now?

The honest answer is no, not really. The emulator is a proof of concept, a clever demo. It is not a way to play games.

There are practical walls in the way. PS5X only runs in Xbox Developer Mode. That is a separate setup Microsoft gives to people who build apps.

It is not the normal Xbox dashboard. Microsoft caps Developer Mode games at 5 gigabytes of memory. Normal Xbox games get 13.5 gigabytes.

That rules out almost every big modern game, Engadget reported.

There is no public download either. Uenal describes PS5X as a research project, according to Engadget. It runs PS5 homebrew and game backups.

The emulator's docs tell users to stick to game files they obtained legally. The developer says the emulator includes no PS5 firmware or decryption keys.

Microsoft has a hard rule here. The company blocked emulators in the Xbox's normal retail mode back in 2023. It then handed out 15-day suspensions to players who found workarounds, Engadget reported.

And Sony is a wild card. TweakTown noted that Sony has been working to shut down modding projects. It most recently pushed hacker Andy Nguyen to drop his Linux-on-PS5 work, Shane the Gamer reported.

An emulator showing Sony's mascot on a rival's console gets noticed fast.

A second Xbox wireless controller
Another Xbox wireless controller model. Emulated games on Xbox take Xbox controller input.Image: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The frame-rate mess, cleaned up

Some reports mixed up two different numbers. Let me fix that. On a high-end PC, Demon's Souls and Astro Bot pass 60 frames per second.

Windows Central reported that figure. That is the PC number, not the Xbox number. The Xbox port has heavier translation work and a tiny memory budget.

On the Xbox Series X, the real number is 10 frames per second for Astro Bot.

There is a second mix-up worth flagging. Some coverage says Astro Bot, but the demo clip is titled Astro's Playroom (Controller Demo).

That free pack-in shipped on every PS5. It is not the full Astro Bot game. WindowsForum flagged this, Shane the Gamer reported.

WindowsForum flagged this, Shane the Gamer reported.

Bryan Adams's PC build pushed Astro Bot's opening from 18 to 60 frames per second. Shane the Gamer reported that figure. None of that speed carries over to the Xbox automatically.

Every PC improvement has to be redone for the Xbox's DirectX renderer.

What happens next

The honest outlook is slow progress. PS5 emulation on PC is becoming more viable by the week, Engadget reported. Android Authority said that KytyPS5 now goes in-game in a variety of PS5 titles on PC.

One user reached Marvel's Wolverine's main menu on an RTX 5090 machine. It ran in slow motion. That clip showed no real gameplay.

The Xbox port inherits that progress only after each fix is rebuilt for DirectX. That means the Xbox version will always lag behind the PC version. The 5-gigabyte memory cap will not go away without a jailbreak.

That cap alone blocks big modern games.

For gamers, the takeaway is simple. Want Astro Bot as it was meant to be played? The PS5 remains the only sensible choice.

That is Shane the Gamer's verdict.

Check what Xbox adds to its own library this month. Or see what PlayStation is offering. And if you read that Microsoft denied a recent streaming-rights rumor, that says a lot.

These two companies are watching each other closely.

One warning before you go looking for this emulator: scammers are cashing in. The RPCS3 team lists KytyPS5 as one of only two active open-source PS5 emulators. Engadget reported that fact.

Fake sites with names like PCS5X spread malware that pretends to be the emulator. If a download looks too easy, do not trust it.

Taggedxbox series xps5 emulationps5x emulator

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