Xbox One Boss On Photorealistic Graphics: ’10 Years Is Reasonable’

Phil Spencer has been taking the good ship Xbox in many surprising and bold new directions since taking over from the once sinking titanic brand, including the introduction of many fantastic new services based initiatives that take Xbox into places the competition just won’t go. He recently talked a bit about a few of those movements on Twitter.

Following Spencer’s gushing over Red Dead Redemption, which he recently managed to finish on Xbox One X after starting it way back on Xbox 360 in 2011, he discussed how Xbox One X and the reaction to it is a lesson to the future of Xbox consoles. For one, it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to segment a player base by hardware in a future where player base is everything. They’re taking a lesson from PC GPUs, where developers will usually only drop a GPU once there’s not many players left to support it.

Spencer was questioned about when games can see photorealism as well, which he can see happening within 10 years. Finally, there was a small tease about some experimentation with what can be done with Xbox Games Pass, and ideas like a “Pilot”. You can see the tweets just below, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Started on 360 (still had the cloud save from 2011), completed middle section via BC on XB1S over the summer, completed final story mission in 4K on XB1X today. Red Dead Redemption, amazing game. pic.twitter.com/oacqX3WhxB

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) April 12, 2018

I agree that Gamepass opens up areas for experimentation that are difficult in a full priced world. We are pursuing this.  Difference with TV is it's perceived as free so viewers are kind of used to the "pilot" idea.  People pay for XGP, I want to respect that.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) April 12, 2018

I'm always learning, it's key for me. I've learned a ton from the response to X from gamers and studios, trust me that this learning is impacting our future plans.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) April 12, 2018

In a future where you have so many big games that have huge playing communities behind them a future where you fragment that community via hardware feels like a challenge.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) April 12, 2018

I think we can learn from PC here.  GPUs are supported until a point where there aren't enough players/buyers to make that platform viable for developers. It should be about players and where they want to play.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) April 12, 2018

Yea, 10 years is reasonable.  There are scenes today where the average viewer would be hard pressed to differentiate.  Animation and lighting are still ways off for real time realism in a scene in my view.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) April 12, 2018