Xbox PC and Game Pass titles are coming to Linux through 'Xodus' — Heroic Launcher devs embark on new open-source reverse-engineering project

Xbox PC games, distributed through the Xbox app, fail to run on Linux because of Microsoft's proprietary GDK runtime environment. This also breaks Game Pass even though the company supports cloud streaming Game Pass titles. A new open-source project from the developers of Heroic Launcher, called "Xodus," is aiming to fix this by reverse engineering and emulating the necessary components required for Xbox PC games on Linux.

Xodus primarily targets modern, GDK-based Xbox PC titles and their MSIXVC packages; not older, UWP-based releases like Gears of War 4 and early Forza Horizon games. The problem with those isn't the DirectX API or x86 instructions; Proton and DXVK/VKD3D can already translate those. That's also the reason why you can still run Xbox PC games on Linux if you somehow get your hands on the DRM-free executables.

The real issue is the trifecta of Microsoft's proprietary GDK (Game Development Kit), Xbox identify services, and encrypted MSIXVC packages. This framework is responsible for verifying licenses for the games you own through the Xbox app. Without it running in the background, the games will simply crash right as you try to open them, or not launch at all. This is where Xodus comes into play.

The Xodus team says the project can already log into Xbox services, download game packages and obtain game licenses. It includes its own open-source implementation of the xgameruntime.dll and custom forks of both Wine and Proton, along with xal-rs, which is an Xbox authentication library for Rust. Xodus uses proxy libraries to interface with GDK games and intercepts API calls to transmit valid Xbox Live tokens.

For now, efforts are focused on emulating the Xbox Gaming Runtime from the Xbox GDK through Wine, then the project will move on to actually launching and playing Xbox PC titles locally. Considering they've already solved the Xbox/Microsoft authentication, license check, and package decryption hurdles, it shouldn't be long before we see PC Game Pass running natively on Linux.

BedrockonLinux 2.0, another open-source project that brings Minecraft Bedrock to the platform, already relies on similar reverse-engineering tech to handle these components since Microsoft migrated the game to GDK. This allows the game to talk to Xbox Live in real-time through a secure doorway to authenticate tokens despite the game running in a sandboxed environment like SteamOS (Linux).

Microsoft itself brought four original Xbox titles to PC last month and it says more are coming, along with leaked documents suggesting Xbox 360 titles also releasing on PC next year. These games come with a baked-in Xbox 360 emulator. It's not clear if these games use the same GDK stack as native Xbox PC titles, however.

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