A working Xbox 360 emulator on Android or iOS has been something I have been waiting for for years now, and this news comes shortly after original Xbox Emulation coming to Android,, as of last week too.
It's the only retro console (along with the original Xbox) that doesn't have a working emulator on smartphones, and that's for good reason. It's really darn hard to emulate these consoles flawlessly.
And that's still the case, but we are stepping ever so closer to a working emulator for us handheld enthusiasts and mobile retro gamers. A developer has somehow managed to get a few Xbox 360 games working via an emulator that can be sideloaded to an iPhone and/or iPad.
It's a fork of an old Xbox 360 emulator that is still under development, called Xenia, created by a team of emulation geniuses in Japan. This new fork on iOS is called XeniOS.
And i'll be honest, the installation process is a ball-ache, and very cumbersome, so I can imagine only XBOX 360 enthusaists will have enough motivation to get this in working order.
And what it is working, you can tell that it's very much in early development, so you'll find a lot of bugs, likely crashes and constant demand for tinkering. A YouTuber called Retro Spirit has created a how-to install guide for those wanting to jump in.
Set up aside, it's a great step forward for Xbox 360 emulation and shows that the tech is moving towards a possible, "official" release in the near future, and by near future, I mean a year or more.
Apple has relaxed their restrictions for this kinda stuff back in 2025, and since then, more emulators have come to iOS users, but XBOX 360 is one that is taking more time due to the intricacies and challenges that emulating this console includes.
Gameplay shows low frame rates, black blocks, glitching and audio issues, even on the latest iPhones, which are darn popular. So, in my eyes, it's not yet "working" at an enjoyable rate, but it is proof that it's coming and an exciting time for those who have wanted this for a while now.
It's an incredibly demanding console to emulate, even for PC standards, and I am hoping that we see a Android port in the future so that we can all put our expensive Android handhelds to the test when things are ironed out.
It's also worth noting that a lot of other developers of emulators have shown their concern for maintaining emulators like this. Last week, the developer behind the incredibly popular PS1 emulator Duckstation said he will no longer be updating the Android application because it takes too much time and the majority of the community are constantly being aggressive to him, demanding that his free application be better.
So, I don't want to take your hopes up here, but rather show you what is being worked on in the emulation space and where this emulation is at in terms of performance. It's great progress so far!
