Microsoft has confirmed that the Xbox Series S will not run Xbox One X Enhanced versions of backwards compatible games, and will instead run the Xbox One S versions of Xbox One and Xbox 360 titles with other beneficial features.
As reported by VGC, while the Xbox Series S won’t run the Xbox One X Enhanced versions of Xbox One and Xbox 360 games, it will still be a step above the Xbox One S with “improved texture filtering, higher and more consistent framr rates, faster load times, and Auto HDR.”
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“Xbox Series S was designed to be the most affordable next generation console and play next generation games at 1440P at 60fps,” A Microsoft spokesperson said. “To deliver the highest quality backwards compatible experience consistent with the developer’s original intent, the Xbox Series S runs the Xbox One S version of backward compatible games while applying improved texture filtering, higher and more consistent frame rates, faster load times and Auto HDR.”
When a game has been Xbox One X Enhanced, it means the developer has made improvements to a standard Xbox One game, including higher resolutions, faster framerates and/or improved textures.
This all shouldn’t be too surprising, as the Xbox One X can run games up to 4K, while the Xbox Series S can run games at 1440p at up to 120 FPS. However, the Xbox Series S does support 4K upscaling for games.
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Additionally, as first reported by Digital Foundry, the Xbox Series S also has less RAM than the Xbox One X – 10 GB vs 12 GB – but that doesn’t mean there aren’t upsides to this new next-gen system.
“It may be be running backwards compatible games in Xbox One [S] mode, but because the GPU is so much more capable, and knowing what we know about how backwards compatibility works, you should actually still be able to clean up performance issues,” Digital Foundry’s John Linneman said. “So games that maybe struggled on Xbox One S – either the dynamic resolution was overly-aggressive, with slowdown and things like that – conceivably they could actually run noticeably smoother on this machine.”
Furthermore, the Xbox Series S also boasts DirectX Raytracing, 4K streaming media playback, variable rate shading and refresh rate, and much more.
The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S will both be released on November 10, 2020, and will cost $499 and $299, respectively. Pre-orders for both consoles begin on September 22, 2020.
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For on the Xbox Series S, check out the leaked “virtual press briefing” that was part of the original reveal plan for the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, the first gameplay footage shown on a Series S, and 56 comparison shots of Microsoft’s next-gen consoles.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
Source: IGN.com Xbox Series S Won't Run Xbox One X Enhanced Versions of Past-Gen Games