There will be over 100 Xbox One X enhanced games- but some of the biggest titles, such as Destiny 2 and Call of Duty: World War 2, are conspicuously missing from that list, something that many have attributed to the games having Sony marketing deals. That can either mean that the games won’t be Xbox One X enhanced, or that they won’t be allowed to have their Xbox One X enhancements be marketed.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Xbox’s Mike Ybarra talked about this very topic, stating, “I’d say we are working with all developers, including the ones you named to make sure the best versions are on Xbox One X and it’s up to them when they want to actually talk about what, if anything, they are doing.”
When he was pointedly asked if marketing deals are keeping Xbox from making a statement on those two games’ Xbox One X enhancements, if there are any, he refused to answer the question, before saying, “I would say, we work with those developers all the time. We want to align with their messaging and what they want to say, when they want to say it. We work with them on timing, how we can help them optimize… there’s a group in my organization called Advanced Technology Group which works with these developers on Xbox One X. We dock to their timelines and align to their communication plans. I can’t comment on any limitations they might have.”
He finally concluded by talking about how pleased he is with the general acceptance of the Xbox One X within the development community, and emphasizing that all big games should end up on Xbox One X. “What I like is that all developers, when we first announced X, all developers wanted that extra power. They want to make their games look the absolute best they can. I love the momentum there, I love we have developers saying it’s easy to get up and running, we fixed a lot of the dev tool issues we had. I like the momentum we have and I’m confident all the big games will be great on Xbox One X.”
I really hope that Eurogamer’s supposition is incorrect, and that at worst, Sony’s deals are preventing Xbox One X enhancements from being marketed, not existing in the first place.
