Compared to Sony’s mandate for the PS4 Pro, where every PS4 title is required to have some kind of enhancement when running on the upgraded console, Microsoft has been a bit loose with its requirements. It’s simply asked developers to ensure that any games that run on the Xbox One X can also run on the Xbox One and vice versa. As for specific enhancements and the like, developers aren’t under any pressure to implement them.
In fact, the Xbox One X has been shown to enhance Xbox One titles even if they don’t have supporting patches. With developers still conforming to a specific base hardware configuration, what does that say about how future Xbox One X titles will perform?
GamingBolt spoke Gaijin Entertainment of War Thunder fame, specifically to CEO Anton Yudintsev. When asked about how the Xbox One X’s performance could be held back from all games needing to run on Xbox One as well, Yudintsev said, “I don’t think so, at least not in the moment. Actually it may be sometimes even good for players.
“It is very easy for developers to fall in a ‘let’s make this amazing visual feature, and we still can get 1080p/30fps/60fps’ way of thinking. Having to support Xbox One as a platform with more or less same gameplay will help to avoid that, meaning that Xbox One X users will be able to enjoy 4k with 60fps. Maybe later it could become an issue.”
While we have seen some games which can look pretty good on the Xbox One X, there are but a handful of titles that truly push the envelope over the base Xbox One. The Xbox One X is currently available for $499 worldwide.