Current Games Will Look, Play Better on Xbox One X

Current Games Will Look, Play Better on Xbox One X

Microsoft’s Xbox One X will usher in a new era of 4K gaming when it arrives this fall. But you won’t need to buy new games to take advantage of its power and performance: Existing games will be improved to support the Xbox One X.

“I’m proud of the library of games available today on Xbox One,” Microsoft’s Phil Spencer noted during his E3 press conference appearance Sunday evening. “All of them will benefit from the [additional] performance and power when you play them on Xbox One X.”

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But, as he noted, Microsoft won’t stop at 100 percent compatibility and some subtle performance improvements across the board. Many existing Xbox One game titles will be enhanced now and in the future to better take advantage of the new console’s unique features.

Spencer then listed some games first-party games that will be updated for Xbox One X: Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, Killer Instinct, Halo Wars 2, and Minecraft will all be updated with 4K graphics, and for free.

I suppose this means that game makers will be able to charge for a 4K upgrade. And many, of course, will simply choose to leave their games as-is. But Spencer also said that over 30 game maker partners were already planning to update existing games to 4K for the Xbox One X—and for free—in the months ahead. So buyers of the new console should be set up nicely for the future.

Spencer specifically mentioned that Final Fantasy XV, Resident Evil 7, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, and Rocket League will be among those offering free 4K upgrades.

Games that provide 4K graphics will be noted by the “Xbox One Enhanced” branding, he said.

“You probably already have a large library of titles that you own today that will automatically get better on Xbox One X, he concluded.

There’s your value proposition right there, folks: A brilliant, fan-friendly strategy that makes the entire Xbox platform better for everyone.

 

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Conversation 15 comments

  • jrickel96

    12 June, 2017 - 8:15 am

    <p>The great thing is that how they designed it does allow for each game to be better, unlike what happened on the PS4 Pro. Sony has since fixed the issue, but MS clearly made sure this would work great from the start.</p>

    • chaad_losan

      12 June, 2017 - 2:35 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#124784"><em>In reply to jrickel96:</em></a></blockquote><p>The PS4 Pro was a muddled mess from the start. Yeah some games can do 4k, sort of, but we can't really commit to 4k/60 we can't say existing games will be better, forget about any backward compatibility, because according to Playstation president no one plays that anyway. And those shinny 4k UHD disks you see at the store, yeah don't bother buying those they won't work in the PS4 Pro – EVER! </p>

      • Jorge Garcia

        12 June, 2017 - 7:17 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#124981"><em>In reply to chaad_losan:</em></a></blockquote><p>The PS4 Pro is a joke. To me, to steal the limelight back for a while, they (Sony) should make a PS-4 Pro R…one that literally plays every PS generation disc ever made. I know it'd be pricey, but If they could let it go it for $499, it'd be a massive hit IMO.</p>

  • Chris

    12 June, 2017 - 9:15 am

    <p>The Xbox One X is starting to sound like an excellent replacement for my Xbox One (not even an S). I have Forza Horizon 3, and the performance upgrade would be lovely. I need to replace my old Plasma TV with something newer to make use of the improved graphics though…</p>

  • spacein_vader

    Premium Member
    12 June, 2017 - 10:53 am

    <p>One point to clarify, does it offer any improvements to existing games if you don't have a 4k TV? Improved framerates for example?</p>

    • Stooks

      12 June, 2017 - 11:14 am

      <blockquote><a href="#124855"><em>In reply to spacein_vader:</em></a></blockquote><p>I do hope someone will answer this question. It is the only question for me that needs to be answered.</p><p><br></p><p>4K gaming is hardly needed and like in the past with consoles they say things like "1080p 30 or 60 fps" and only a handful of game ever really do that and the graphics are turned down in some way or the game is a type that can get there easily, like racing.</p><p><br></p><p>There are so many 1080p TV's/monitors out there right now. I am hoping that this console will help 1080p gamers at least with a frame boost. </p><p><br></p><p>Say BF1 on the Xbox One X at 1080p gets double the frame rates out of the box??? Then EA drops a patch for the Xbox One X and the frame rate may drop slightly, but still higher than the Xbox One S, and the graphic get a bump at 1080p.</p>

      • Roger Ramjet

        12 June, 2017 - 12:39 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#124869"><em>In reply to Stooks:</em></a></blockquote><p>Yes. This was referenced during Microsoft's presentation. If you don't have 4K, for 1080p TVs specifically, &nbsp;they have stuff to make your games look/play better than anything you would have seen before, they claimed. Don't know the actual technical thingys. But just Bing it: Xbox&nbsp;One X 1080p TV. </p>

    • EraseYourself

      12 June, 2017 - 1:16 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#124855"><em>In reply to spacein_vader:</em></a><em> yes. Phil specifically stated if you don't have a 4K TV you will still see big improvements on the Xbox one x</em></blockquote><p><br></p>

  • rameshthanikodi

    12 June, 2017 - 11:27 am

    <p>Guys. <em>Guys.</em> Let's all agree to refer to the Xbox One X as …. X.B.O.X</p>

    • the_3rd_pedal

      12 June, 2017 - 1:56 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#124880"><em>In reply to rameshthanikodi:</em></a></blockquote><p>Nothing less than brilliant!</p>

    • Jorge Garcia

      12 June, 2017 - 7:05 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#124880"><em>In reply to rameshthanikodi:</em></a></blockquote><p>Hmmm. Almost seems intentional :)</p>

  • Narg

    12 June, 2017 - 12:29 pm

    <p>Was it me? Or was there no Halo announcement this time? That'd be new.</p>

  • Daekar

    12 June, 2017 - 3:25 pm

    <p>The really neat thing about this generation of consoles is that we're sort of reaching peak resolution for many usefully sized screens. Once you've got games running at 4K HDR natively and you've got decent quality 4K panels, things like anti-aliasing start to become superfluous. You don't need to push the next generation to a high resolution because nobody will be able to see the pixels anyway. </p><p>That means from here on out, increases in computing power will go to increase the effects, physics, textures, model complexity, etc – we're not going to see advances in those things stunted by the need for more power to go to the next highest resolution. If the new Xbox is going to play current-gen games at 4K 60fps, then the next generation after this is going to have some mind-blowing models and effects. I suspect that this is going to be a decently long-lived generation of consoles, unless VR takes off a lot more than I believe it will.</p>

    • Jorge Garcia

      12 June, 2017 - 7:13 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#125002"><em>In reply to Daekar:</em></a></blockquote><p>Already some obsessive gamers are complaining that certain games will max out at 4K 30fps, not 60fps. That means there will be a point in the next couple of years where the Scorpio 2 will be necessary lol. Maybe they should just make an expansion pack (ala the 32X :)) to satisfy those folks. Overall, though, I think it's great that consoles have all arrived at the PC model. The more that resolution matters to you, the more you can spend and get what you want, but still stay within the same generation. I wonder at what point will they LEGITIMATELY have to exclude the "lowly" first X-Box One from the new titles. I hope that day is very far off, as I don't see why you shouldn't just be able to turn down (muddy up) the resolution, and some layers, etc. until it "looks pretty bad, but still works".</p>

      • Tony Barrett

        13 June, 2017 - 6:44 am

        <blockquote><a href="#125036"><em>In reply to Jorge Garcia:</em></a></blockquote><p>Indeed. I'm hearing the same thing. Not even this console is capable of rendering everything at 4k/60fps. Not only are we expecting 30fps as a trade off. If you want 60fps, you could be looking at lower resolutions with checkerboard rendering. Not much different to the PS4 Pro then!</p>

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