Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S Will Be the Best Place to Play 1000s of Games From Across Four Generations of Xbox
Backwards compat fans unite! Let me hear your voice!!
As gamers, we know how
important it is to preserve and respect your gaming legacy. We
believe your favourite games and franchises, your progression and
achievements, your Xbox One gaming accessories and the
friendships and communities you create through gaming should all move with you
across generations. We also fundamentally believe that not only should you
be able to play all of your games from the past without needing to purchase
them again, but they should
also look, feel and play better on the next
generation of Xbox consoles. Preserving and improving the thousands of
games you know and love, or have yet to discover, has been a core
objective since the beginning of the backward compatibility program in
2015, and with years of learnings and successes – and over 500,000 hours
of gameplay testing across four generations of Xbox in the last year
alone getting ready for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S – we
couldn’t be more proud of the results you will be able to experience
beginning November 10.
Games play best on Xbox Series
X and Series S
Backward compatible games run
natively on the Xbox Series X and S, running with the full power of the
CPU, GPU and SSD. No boost mode, no downclocking, the full power of
the consoles for each and every backward compatible game. This means
that all titles run at the peak performance that they were originally designed
for, with significantly higher performance than their original launch
platform, resulting in higher and more steady framerates and rendering at their
maximum resolution and visual quality. Backward compatible titles
also benefit from significant reductions in load times due
to the massive leap in performance from our custom NVME SSD at the
heart of the Xbox Velocity Architecture.
Auto HDR for everyone
Modern
games often implement high dynamic range (HDR) to
improve overall visual quality. HDR allows a game to render a much
larger range of brightness values and colours. This gives an
extra sense of richness and depth to the image when compared to a standard
dynamic range (SDR) image. For example, the light from a flashlight
looks much brighter and red flowers look much more
vibrant.
However, thousands of Xbox
games shipped before HDR
was first introduced with Xbox One S,
and even for some Xbox One games, developers simply didn’t have the
development resources or time to implement HDR. With Xbox Series
X and Series S we are introducing a new
feature named Auto HDR. Auto HDR automatically adds
HDR enhancements to games which only shipped with
SDR. Auto HDR enhances the visual quality of an SDR game without
changing the original artistic intent of the game. Auto HDR is
implemented by the system so developers don’t have to
do any work to take advantage of this feature. Also, since Auto
HDR is enabled by the console’s hardware, there is absolutely no
performance cost to the CPU, GPU or memory and there
is no additional latency added ensuring
you receive the ultimate gaming experience.
The below
images show how Auto HDR can improve the visual quality without
changing the overall look of the game. The HDR
images are brighter and more colourful only in the naturally expected
areas, while the rest of the image retains its original intent.
Amazing innovations for
some of the classics
By the time the new Xbox
consoles launch this November, the team will have spent well over 500,000
hours of gameplay across the entire backward compatibility catalogue to
ensure your experience is the best possible, no matter which game is your
favourite. Beyond the improvements all backward compatible games will
see due to increased hardware performance, our team of backward compatibility
engineers continue to innovate and push the limits of game preservation and
enhancement to make your current game library look and play even
better, at no additional cost and with no work from developers while still
respecting the artistic intent and vision of the original creators.
New technology to
double framerates
Xbox Series
X and Xbox Series S bring next-gen performance to your
favourite games. Higher, steadier framerates make games feel
smoother, resulting in more immersive gameplay. Many improvements are the
result of the custom designed processor that allows compatible games
to play and leverage the increased CPU, GPU and memory from the new consoles.
In addition however,
the backward compatibility team has developed new
methods for effectively doubling the framerate on select
titles. While not applicable for many titles due to the game’s
original physics or animations, these new techniques the team has
developed can push game engines to render more quickly for
a buttery smooth experience beyond what the original game might have
delivered due to the capabilities of the hardware. Fallout 4 framerate, shown
below, is effectively doubled from 30fps to 60fps on Xbox Series
S, delivering a new way to preserve and enjoy this legendary
title.
Enhanced visuals you
have to see to believe
On the Xbox One, we were able
to provide a curated list of titles that were enhanced for the Xbox One X via
the Heutchy method. This allowed titles from Xbox 360
that rendered at 720p and original Xbox games that ran at
360p to play at 4K on Xbox One X, well beyond the capabilities
of their original platform. The Heutchy method continues to be used to
bring a variety of titles to 1440p on Xbox Series S and 4K on Xbox
Series X.
Improved texture filtering is
also coming to backward compatible titles on both Xbox
Series X and Series S. On Xbox One X, a portion of the catalogue
benefited from increased anisotropic filtering, improving image quality of
games. On Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, 16x
anisotropic filtering has been
enabled for nearly all backward
compatible titles so you can experience the very best
visuals the games have to offer.
Delivering on our promise
The backward compatibility team
has been working hard to make all the games you love and remember available to
you on Xbox Series X and Series S. Playing the games will
be just as easy and magical as it’s always
been. Simply insert your favourite backward compatible Xbox One,
Xbox 360 or original Xbox disc into your Xbox Series X, install the
game, and you’ll be ready to play. Your digital
library will instantly appear and ready for download
on the console when you sign in. If you’ve already installed your
games to an external drive, you can bring that with you to the Xbox Series X
and Xbox Series S. This all happens
with no additional cost to you. And, with cloud saves,
you’ll jump right back in where you left off. For those of you
still enjoying Xbox 360, cloud saves will soon be
free to all Xbox 360 users, making transferring your favourite
games to Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S
even easier.
Preserving the games of our
past is fundamental to our DNA at Xbox and our
continued promise to you. Backward compatibility lets
you experience your cherished gaming memories again and in new
ways. Your favourite games retain everything the original developer intended,
while experiencing enhancements and exciting new features. There’s no need to
look back, because your games are ready to move forward with you to the next generation
of Xbox.