Microsoft says that Xbox Series X will improve performance of some games, add HDR to games that previously didn’t support it, let you quickly switch between games without having to reload, and even support titles originally released from the original Xbox. Also, it floats on water.
Obviously, that bit about the console floating on water is a reference to the console’s announcement trailer and not true. That being said, the Xbox Series X will have the rest of the features previously mentioned in this news report when it launches later this year. Microsoft confirmed them all on Xbox Wire earlier today.
The Xbox Series X’s support for Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One X games are all down to hardware and software. Microsoft isn’t providing a list of titles the Xbox Series X will support right now, just that it has done the hard work and testing to make sure that if developers want to offer their older titles on the Series X, they can do so. According to Microsoft, the Series X’s beefy processor and graphics card will translate to better performance for older games than when they were first released. Think higher resolution and smoother motion thanks to higher frame rates. Even games originally released on the Xbox will get HDR, which should translate to darker night scenes and brighter colors if the TV you connect the Series X to also supports HDR.
The Xbox Series X has a solid state drive inside. That’s the same data storage hardware that smartphone makers use to keep your iPhone or Android device physically slim and feeling speedy as you flip between apps. Xbox Series X will use its incredibly fast SSD to let you flip between games without loading them all over again. This feature is called Quick Resume. Developers won’t have to do anything on their end to make Quick Resume work. Simplicity at its finest. That fast SSD will also let games load much, much faster than they did originally. I can appreciate Quick Resume already. Entire nations ceased to exist in the time it takes open-world games to load on my Xbox One S.
So now we know what Xbox Series X looks like and what its powerful hardware will mean for the games we already own. The only thing left is for Microsoft to show us the games it will launch with and tell us when to hand over our hard earns. And, I suppose, how much of those hard earns we’ll have to part with.
Xbox Series X is still set for launch later this year.