Microsoft is preparing to add official Xbox achievements to selected original Xbox games, ending a gap that has existed since the achievement system debuted with the Xbox 360 in 2005. The first four confirmed titles—Blinx: The Time Sweeper, Conker: Live & Reloaded, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, and Fuzion Frenzy—will receive achievements on both Xbox consoles and PC in the coming months.
The change forms part of Microsoft’s newly launched Xbox Backward Compatibility on PC program. The four games became available through the Xbox PC app on July 22, marking their first official release on Windows. They can be purchased separately, are included with every Xbox Game Pass plan, and support cross-device ownership: players who already hold a digital console license can access the same game on a compatible PC or handheld. Microsoft says the achievement updates will arrive later in 2026, although it has not yet published the lists, Gamerscore totals, or a precise release date.
Achievements have been part of the Xbox identity for 21 years. Microsoft introduced Xbox Live Achievements and the cumulative Gamerscore system in 2005, but the feature never existed on the original Xbox, which launched four years earlier. Even when Microsoft added original Xbox titles to Xbox One backward compatibility in 2017, it explicitly said they would not receive achievements because the functionality was absent from the original releases. The new plan reverses that long-standing position.
The significance goes beyond adding optional challenges to four old games. Achievements connect a title to a player’s modern Xbox profile, recording milestones and giving completion-focused users a reason to revisit games they may have finished decades ago. They also bring these releases closer to the standard feature set expected from current Xbox games, making the classics feel less isolated from the wider platform.
Microsoft is modernizing the games in other ways while saying it will preserve their original gameplay. The PC editions offer up to four-times resolution upscaling, VSync, enhanced anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, and fullscreen or windowed display modes. Language and audio settings are also customizable. The program remains in an early-release phase, and Microsoft describes the initial lineup as the beginning of a broader effort to bring more legacy Xbox games to PC over time.
However, the announcement is deliberately limited. Microsoft has promised achievements only for “select” original Xbox games, not the entire backward-compatible catalog. It has also not confirmed whether future titles will receive achievements at launch, whether existing saves can unlock them retroactively, or how frequently the PC library will expand. Those unanswered questions will determine whether this becomes a substantial preservation program or remains a small curated experiment.
For now, the four-game rollout represents a notable policy shift. If the updates work reliably and attract players, Microsoft will have a strong case for extending achievements—and its wider PC compatibility work—to more original Xbox releases. The next important signals will be the achievement lists themselves and the identity of the second wave of supported games.
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