What you can do
What You Can Do
Developer Mode opens the door to running your own software on the Xbox One. The most popular use is emulation and homebrew, all packaged as UWP apps and sideloaded through the Device Portal.
Emulators
The community has ported several well-known emulators to UWP. These run inside the developer sandbox and play game files you supply yourself.
- RetroArch — a multi-system front end with many cores covering classic 8-bit and 16-bit consoles, arcade systems, and more.
- Dolphin — GameCube and Wii emulation, though performance varies by title and console model.
- PPSSPP — PlayStation Portable emulation, generally one of the smoother experiences.
Homebrew and your own apps
If you write code, you can build and deploy your own UWP applications: media players, utilities, hobby projects, or experiments. This is exactly what Developer Mode was designed for.
You must own and supply your own game files. Emulators do not include games, and using copyrighted ROMs you do not own is illegal in most places. Dev Mode also cannot run pirated retail Xbox titles.
Practical notes
Each app is capped at 2 GB of memory and lives in a sandbox with restricted file access. For RetroArch you will need to enable external file access so it can reach your ROMs and BIOS files. Performance scales with your hardware: an Xbox One X handles far more than a base Xbox One.