Even though Forza looks incredible on the Scorpio, there was one bit of additional news shared on Eurogamer that I found super interesting. Microsoft is making sure to let people know that this new unit will play everything that is currently playable on Xbox One. Yes, that includes the hundreds of Xbox 360 titles that are backwards compatible. This new machine could be the best way to enjoy those older games with a slew of sweet features.
To summarize a bit of what Richard Leadbetter says in his video, Project Scorpio basically gives all titles across the board a shot of power. This means that we should see less screen tearing on things like Bayonetta, which already gets a bit of a boost while played on Xbox One, plus unlocking games with dynamic framerates. Games like the classic Gears of War, Call of Duty 2, and hell lets throw in Kameo: Elements of Power, will just look smoother and more crisp. Will this show more of their visual flaws? Well, that will be a game by game issue, but at the least all games should look nicer in general.
Also discussed in this video is the fact that loading times will increase across all games. While this is looks to be a huge advantage for disc-based games (of which I always have more of), there will also be a boost for hard drive loaded games. So, all of those digital 360 titles sitting in the game library will also load up much quicker, due to the increased speed of the Scorpio’s hard disk.
“We’re actually promising developers a 50 per cent improvement in overall bandwidth for the purposes of driving 4K textures, but this also helps us in this situation where you’re running existing Xbox One and Xbox 360 titles. They will also benefit from the faster hard disk” – Microsoft’s Andrew Goossen
Unfortunately, Leadbetter believes that there will likely be some compatibility issues with this new boost in performance across a small percentage of titles and Goosen weighs in on the issue. Just as it does on Xbox One currently, absolute peak performance is mostly in the hands of the original developers. However, Microsoft does seem to want Scorpio to run as best as it can without damaging playability on the new device.
“There will be some cases where we have to dial down some of those attributes… in some games we potentially have to dial down the number of CUs, for example, to maintain compatibility with that title. But again these are all things that Microsoft does, we’ve always done, that’s true of all 360 titles on Xbox One. We just make sure it runs the best it possibly can on Scorpio and we’re very excited that Scorpio really will be the best place to run all your Xbox content.” – Microsoft’s Andrew Goossen
However, this does in fact mean that at the least, most of our Xbox 360 and even older Xbox One titles will just look and play better. This is an awesome step for the industry and also leaves plenty of room to Microsoft to continue expanding their backwards compatible offerings, which has been a huge selling point in their competition against Sony’s PS4. Just because we’ll be playing the latest and greatest in 4K, doesn’t mean these other amazing experiences will be left behind. All those great games will be available in one place.
I spent a ton of time on my Xbox 360 and as a retro gamer I understand wholly how much of a challenge it can be bringing those older games to nicer displays throughout the years. Running something like the PS1 is a lot harder to get looking nice than I would like, so the fact that Microsoft is taking these 360 titles we can already play on Xbox One along for the ride is a welcome addition to this new system. Hopefully this will be the best way to play those select 360 titles in all facets. I definitely want to revisit a few classics.
Yet, I still dearly hope that Microsoft will continue expanding that Xbox 360 backwards compatibility and until that reaches one hundred percent, I’ll have to keep the old system handy. Just in case I want to play something obscure.
Original story from Eurogamer. Please check out the original article here.
