The Xbox Series X and Series S launched with some pretty impressive system-level backward compatibility enhancements, with certain legacy games benefitting from natively enhanced resolutions or even the addition of HDR. Recently, Microsoft added another enhancement with FPS Boost, which, as its name suggests, boosts the frame rate of games on a system-level, with a first batch of five games that currently support the feature.
Speaking recently in an interview with Colt Eastwood (which you can view below), Xbox’s director of program management Jason Ronald explained that FPS Boost doesn’t require any extra development work from the developers of the games in question themselves, and that in some cases, developers actually have more flexibility over whether they want to add enhancements to older titles.
“We’re doing this all with no extra development work by the developer themselves, so in some cases the developer actually has more flexibility and more control if they choose to go back and update the title, or they may have plans for the franchise, so it’s really a collaboration between us and the publisher,” Ronald said.
At the same time, Ronald explained that owing to how FPS Boost works, or internal updates that developers might have planned for their games on their own, not every game would be able to benefit from the feature.
“We listen to the community, we hear the passion from the community, we know what games the community would like to see,” Ronald said. “In some cases due to the way the technique was developed, we’re not going to be able to enable all of those titles. In other cases, the developer or publisher has plans for the franchise, and they’ll release their own updates.”
Currently, Far Cry 4, Watch Dogs 2, UFC 4, Sniper Elite 4, and New Super Lucky’s Tales are the games that support FPS Boost, and Microsoft have said that they will be adding the feature to more games going forward.
