For some time now, Microsoft has presented its Xbox universe as an ecosystem, avoiding limiting its games to a single platform. It continues in this direction with the Series X for two reasons: firstly because all the games developed by the 15 Xbox studios will also run, at first, on Xbox One, but also because the system Smart delivery will guarantee to those who bought the games eligible for this program on Xbox One to be able to play them also on Xbox Series X without going back to the cashier (this will be the case, in particular, of Cyberpunk 2077). In this context, nothing more logical for the Redmond company than to bet on maximum backward compatibility for its Xbox Series X, and this is precisely what defends Jason Ronald, associate director of program management for the team of the Xbox platform, in a Xbox Wire blog post.
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Several thousand natively compatible games
The official asserts that “Thousands of games are already playable today on Xbox Series X”, thanks to “More than 100,000 hours of game tests already carried out” by its teams who already use the console daily with the games in the Xbox One catalog. A test period which should double by the time the console is released at the end of the year, according to indications from Jason Ronald. No emulation in the program, “Backward compatible games run natively on Xbox Series X hardware”, he specifies, with of course optimal performances. They will also take advantage of the speed of the integrated SSD, which will significantly reduce loading times, but also pause several games and resume the game in a few seconds thanks to the function Quick Resume which will therefore not be limited to games planned for Series X.
4K, HDR and up to 120 fps for certain titles
For some games selected manually, it will also be possible to enjoy an improved definition, up to Ultra HD 4K (among other things thanks to the Heutchy method, already used to increase the definition of Xbox 360 games on Xbox One), but also anisotropic filtering and a doubled display frequency (from 30 to 60 fps or even from 60 to 120 fps). Microsoft does not yet specify which titles are affected by these improvements. Likewise, the HDR reconstruction technique, already revealed previously, will bring HDR display to old games that were not initially developed to benefit from it. It is the console itself which will be responsible for applying HDR to the game thanks to an algorithm allowing to enjoy it even on titles from the first Xbox.
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One thing is sure, the Xbox Series X will not miss games when it launches. However, let’s hope that it will be able to count on a few exclusive titles in the months following its launch, so that its own capabilities are better highlighted.
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