Microsoft announced the oddly named Xbox One X at its E3 press conference and confirmed that several existing Xbox One titles would be receiving free 4K updates. One of those games is The Coalition’s Gears of War 4 and in a recent official interview, technical director Mike Rayner talked about some of the improvements that would be coming.
Rayner noted that the team has been working on the Xbox One X for “some time now”. “We’re incredibly excited to see it come to life as something gamers can take home this November,” indicating that the 4K update goes live with the console’s launch. “Gears has always been known for being a graphical leader on consoles – and now on Windows 10 PC – so having an incredibly powerful piece of hardware in the console space that we can really push ourselves with is a dream come true.”
It was also revealed that aside from a native 4K resolution, Gears of War 4 would benefit across the board from improvements. “Not only does that mean a 4x increase in our native rendering resolution compared to 1080p on Xbox One, but it also means much higher resolution textures across the board – from characters to environments, visual effects, everything! Bringing that incredible level fidelity to the console for the first time, which so far has really been limited to top-spec PC rigs, has been incredibly exciting for us.
“One of the exclusive features for Gears of War 4 on Xbox One X is the ability to run 4K HDR with Wide Color Gamut Support. We supported HDR on the Xbox One S, and 4K on PC, but this is the first time you can play Gears of War 4 with a combination of that incredible 4K fidelity and the vibrant contrast of HDR. It’s really something else.”
Xbox One X is out on November 7th with other games like Forza Horizon 3, Halo Wars 2 and more set to receive free 4K updates.