{"id":119291,"date":"2020-10-13T12:03:11","date_gmt":"2020-10-13T12:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/?p=439534"},"modified":"2020-10-13T12:03:11","modified_gmt":"2020-10-13T12:03:11","slug":"play-thousands-of-games-from-4-generations-of-xbox-on-xbox-series-x-and-xbox-series-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/10\/13\/play-thousands-of-games-from-4-generations-of-xbox-on-xbox-series-x-and-xbox-series-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Play thousands of games from 4 generations of Xbox on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- .entry-social --> <\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-main entry-main--post entry-main--post-no-sidebar\">\n<p>As gamers, we know how important it is to preserve and respect&nbsp;your gaming&nbsp;legacy.&nbsp;We believe your favorite games and franchises, your progression and achievements,&nbsp;your&nbsp;Xbox One&nbsp;gaming accessories&nbsp;and the friendships and communities you create through gaming should all move with you across generations.&nbsp;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&nbsp;look,&nbsp;feel&nbsp;and&nbsp;play&nbsp;better&nbsp;on&nbsp;the next generation of Xbox consoles.&nbsp;Preserving&nbsp;and improving the thousands of games you know and love, or have yet to discover, has been a core objective&nbsp;since the beginning of the backward compatibility program in 2015, and with years of learnings and successes&nbsp;\u2013 and over 500,000 hours of gameplay testing&nbsp;across four generations of Xbox&nbsp;in the last year alone&nbsp;getting ready for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;we couldn\u2019t be more proud&nbsp;of the results you will be able to experience beginning November 10.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Games play best on Xbox Series X and Series S<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Backward compatible games run natively on the&nbsp;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&nbsp;consoles&nbsp;for each and every backward compatible game. This means that all titles run at the peak performance that they were originally designed for,&nbsp;with significantly&nbsp;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&nbsp;benefit from&nbsp;significant reductions in load times&nbsp;due to&nbsp;the massive leap in performance from our custom NVME SSD&nbsp;at the heart of&nbsp;the\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/news.xbox.com\/en-us\/2020\/07\/14\/a-closer-look-at-xbox-velocity-architecture\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Xbox Velocity Architecture<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Auto HDR<\/strong><strong>&nbsp;for everyone<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Modern games&nbsp;often&nbsp;implement high dynamic range (HDR) to improve&nbsp;overall&nbsp;visual quality. HDR allows a game to render a much larger range of brightness&nbsp;values&nbsp;and&nbsp;colors. 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&nbsp;much brighter and red flowers&nbsp;look much&nbsp;more vibrant.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>However, thousands of Xbox games shipped before HDR was&nbsp;first&nbsp;introduced&nbsp;with&nbsp;Xbox&nbsp;One&nbsp;S, and&nbsp;even&nbsp;for some Xbox One games, developers simply didn\u2019t have the development resources or time to implement HDR.&nbsp;With&nbsp;Xbox Series X&nbsp;and Series&nbsp;S&nbsp;we&nbsp;are&nbsp;introducing&nbsp;a new feature&nbsp;named&nbsp;Auto&nbsp;HDR. Auto&nbsp;HDR automatically adds HDR&nbsp;enhancements&nbsp;to games which&nbsp;only&nbsp;shipped with SDR.&nbsp;Auto HDR&nbsp;enhances&nbsp;the visual quality of an SDR game without changing the original artistic intent of the game. Auto&nbsp;HDR is implemented&nbsp;by&nbsp;the&nbsp;system so&nbsp;developers&nbsp;don\u2019t have to do any work to take advantage of&nbsp;this&nbsp;feature. Also, since&nbsp;Auto HDR&nbsp;is enabled by&nbsp;the console\u2019s hardware, there is absolutely no performance cost&nbsp;to&nbsp;the CPU,&nbsp;GPU&nbsp;or memory and&nbsp;there is no&nbsp;additional&nbsp;latency&nbsp;added&nbsp;ensuring you&nbsp;receive&nbsp;the ultimate gaming experience.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The below images&nbsp;show&nbsp;how Auto&nbsp;HDR can improve the visual quality without changing the overall look of the game.&nbsp;The HDR images&nbsp;are&nbsp;brighter and more colorful only in the naturally expected areas, while the rest of the image&nbsp;retains its original&nbsp;intent.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1432\" height=\"796\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/play-thousands-of-games-from-4-generations-of-xbox-on-xbox-series-x-and-xbox-series-s.jpg\" alt=\"Xbox Series X HDR\" class=\"wp-image-144288\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Amazing<\/strong><strong>&nbsp;innovations for some&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>of the classics<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By the time&nbsp;the new Xbox consoles&nbsp;launch this November, the team will have spent well over&nbsp;500,000 hours&nbsp;of gameplay across the entire backward compatibility catalog to ensure your experience is the best possible, no matter which game is your favorite.&nbsp;Beyond the improvements&nbsp;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&nbsp;look and play&nbsp;even better, at no additional cost and with no work from developers while still respecting the artistic intent and vision of the original creators.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>New<\/strong><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>technology<\/strong><strong>&nbsp;to double&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>framerates<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Xbox Series X&nbsp;and&nbsp;Xbox&nbsp;Series&nbsp;S bring next-gen performance to your favorite games. Higher,&nbsp;steadier&nbsp;framerates make games feel smoother, resulting in more immersive gameplay. Many improvements are the result of the custom designed&nbsp;processor&nbsp;that allows compatible games to play and leverage the increased CPU, GPU and memory from the new consoles. In addition&nbsp;however, the&nbsp;backward&nbsp;compatibility&nbsp;team&nbsp;has developed&nbsp;new methods for&nbsp;effectively doubling the&nbsp;framerate on select titles.&nbsp;While not applicable for many titles&nbsp;due to the game\u2019s original physics or animations,&nbsp;these new techniques&nbsp;the team has developed&nbsp;can&nbsp;push&nbsp;game engines to render more quickly&nbsp;for a buttery smooth experience&nbsp;beyond&nbsp;what the original game might have delivered due to the capabilities of&nbsp;the&nbsp;hardware.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>Fallout 4<\/em>&nbsp;framerate,&nbsp;shown below,&nbsp;is effectively doubled from 30fps to 60fps on&nbsp;Xbox&nbsp;Series S, delivering a new way to&nbsp;preserve and&nbsp;enjoy&nbsp;this legendary title.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\">[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6GnvSNA-1DY?version=3&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent&#038;w=640&#038;h=360]<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>Enhanced&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>visuals<\/strong><strong>&nbsp;you have to see to believe<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>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&nbsp;from Xbox 360 that&nbsp;rendered&nbsp;at&nbsp;720p&nbsp;and original Xbox games that ran at 360p&nbsp;to&nbsp;play at&nbsp;4K on Xbox One X, well beyond the capabilities of their original platform. The Heutchy method continues to be used to bring&nbsp;a variety of&nbsp;titles to 1440p on Xbox Series S and 4K on Xbox Series X.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1852\" height=\"631\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/play-thousands-of-games-from-4-generations-of-xbox-on-xbox-series-x-and-xbox-series-s-1.jpg\" alt=\"Xbox Series S BC\" class=\"wp-image-144289\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Improved texture filtering is also coming to&nbsp;backward compatible&nbsp;titles&nbsp;on&nbsp;both&nbsp;Xbox Series X&nbsp;and Series&nbsp;S.&nbsp;On Xbox One X, a portion of the catalog benefited from increased anisotropic filtering, improving image quality of games. On Xbox Series X&nbsp;and&nbsp;Xbox&nbsp;Series&nbsp;S,&nbsp;16x anisotropic filtering&nbsp;has been enabled&nbsp;for&nbsp;nearly&nbsp;all&nbsp;backward compatible&nbsp;titles&nbsp;so you can experience the&nbsp;very&nbsp;best visuals the games have to offer.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Delivering on our promise<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The&nbsp;backward&nbsp;compatibility&nbsp;team has been working hard to make all the games you love and remember available to you on Xbox Series X&nbsp;and Series&nbsp;S.&nbsp;Playing&nbsp;the games will be just as easy&nbsp;and magical&nbsp;as&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;always been.&nbsp;Simply insert your favorite&nbsp;backward&nbsp;compatible Xbox One, Xbox 360 or original Xbox disc into your Xbox Series X, install the game,&nbsp;and&nbsp;you\u2019ll&nbsp;be ready to play.&nbsp;Your&nbsp;digital library&nbsp;will&nbsp;instantly&nbsp;appear&nbsp;and&nbsp;ready for download on the console when you sign&nbsp;in.&nbsp;If you\u2019ve already installed your games to an external drive, you can bring that with you to the Xbox Series X and&nbsp;Xbox&nbsp;Series S.&nbsp;This&nbsp;all happens with&nbsp;no&nbsp;additional cost&nbsp;to you.&nbsp;And, with cloud saves, you\u2019ll jump right back in where you left off.&nbsp; For those of you still&nbsp;enjoying&nbsp;Xbox 360, cloud saves&nbsp;will&nbsp;soon be free&nbsp;to all Xbox 360 users, making transferring your favorite games&nbsp;to&nbsp;Xbox Series X and&nbsp;Xbox&nbsp;Series S even&nbsp;easier.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Preserving the games of our past&nbsp;is&nbsp;fundamental&nbsp;to&nbsp;our DNA&nbsp;at Xbox and our continued promise to you.&nbsp;Backward compatibility&nbsp;lets you&nbsp;experience&nbsp;your cherished gaming memories&nbsp;again and in new ways. Your favorite games retain everything the original developer intended, while experiencing enhancements and exciting new features. There\u2019s no need to look back, because your games are ready to move forward with you to the next generation of&nbsp;Xbox.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .main-content --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As gamers, we know how important it is to preserve and respect&nbsp;your gaming&nbsp;legacy.&nbsp;We believe your favorite games and franchises, your progression and achievements,&nbsp;your&nbsp;Xbox One&nbsp;gaming accessories&nbsp;and the friendships and communities you create through gaming should all move with you across generations.&nbsp;We also fundamentally believe that not only should you be able to play all of your [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[50,56],"class_list":["post-119291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microsoft-news","tag-recent-news","tag-xbox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}