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Most of the older Xbox One games will run at 4K and 60 frames per second on the Xbox Series X, based on a handful of practical tests.
Microsoft has shipped pre-production units of its Xbox Series X to some tech testers, but so far they only have older games to test on the next-gen console. But backward compatibility has been overtaken by Microsoft for the Xbox Series X, so now we have an idea of how it will work.
Currently, the Xbox One X is Microsoft’s most powerful gaming console, capable of running a selection of games at native 4K resolutions. But many of these titles, like Red Dead Redemption 2, are limited to 30fps, which is not the most fluid way to play.
However, the significant increase in graphics and processor power in the AMD-based chipset found in the Xbox Series X enables 4K gaming at a speed of 60fps. Games that struggled on Xbox One X, like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Final Fantasy 15, perform very well on Xbox Series X, and basically double the performance of their still powerful predecessor. The folks at Digital Foundry have a very detailed breakdown of how the Xbox Series X performs with current-gen games.
4K at 60fps may not seem like a big deal when PCs can already run some games on it, and it’s the focus of next-gen gaming on Microsoft’s next console. But it’s worth noting that much of the Xbox Series X’s power will be held back by frame rate limits in games. And many of these older titles simply run on Xbox Series X hardware, rather than being optimized for it.
As such, if Microsoft were to encourage developers to go back to their Xbox One games and rework them for Xbox Series X, then we could see even bigger performance leaps. Gears 5 is expected to run at 120fps on Xbox Series X after all.
There are many very impressive games available for Xbox One and they still look pretty good. So the idea of playing them back at 4K and smooth frame rates is a very attractive prospect. Older Xbox games, dating back to the original Xbox, are also expected to run on the Xbox Series X, and probably at 120fps.
All of this sets the standard for backward compatibility to compete with the PS5. Sony has said that the PS5 will run 99 percent of PS4 games at launch, but older PlayStation games don’t appear to be compatible. And there aren’t many details on how well they’ll work on the PS5. Sony will offer the PS Plus Collection, a series of exclusive PS4 games coming to the PS5 as part of the PS Plus subscription, but we don’t know yet if they will be improved in any particular way.
Combined with Xbox Game Pass, which offers access to a wide range of games for an affordable subscription fee, Xbox Series X backward compatibility helps make the console look very attractive. It will need new exclusive games, and with Halo Infinite delayed, it seems to be a bit short at launch. However, Bethesda will become part of Microsoft in 2021, which could bring a host of games to Xbox and possibly also a set of exclusive titles.
