We know that backwards compatibility is a big deal for Microsoft and their plans in the next-gen console war. They’ve made a big deal of having over 1,000 games when the Xbox Series X and S launch this November, especially showcasing how the Xbox Series X will enhance many Xbox One X titles with better resolution, frame rates, and textures.

But what about the Xbox Series S? Microsoft’s lesser next-gen console still has something to offer older Xbox games, even if it can’t quite provide the giant performance boosts of the Xbox Series X.

First, there will be lower loading times thanks to the Xbox Series S’s solid-state drive. Then there’s auto HDR for screens capable of displaying high dynamic range.

Resolutions are a bit trickier. For original Xbox and Xbox 360 titles, Xbox Series S will up-scale their resolutions to 1440p. Xbox One games, on the other hand, will run at whatever resolution that the developer deems best. That might mean the Xbox Series S native resolution of 1440p, or it might mean a higher or lower resolution depending on performance.

Speaking to Eurogamer, systems architect Andrew Goossen also noted how easy it will be for players to go from the Xbox One S to the Xbox Series S.

“We designed the Series S to enhance the Xbox One S games in a way that the Xbox One X can’t do,” Gossen said. “We made it easy for existing Xbox One S games to be updated to run with double the frame-rate when played on Series S as well. When games are updated, existing games can query to determine whether they’re running on the new console. And in terms of the performance, the Series S provides well over double the effective CPU and GPU performance over the Xbox One, making it pretty straightforward for the games to do this. And in fact, the Series S GPU runs the Xbox One S games with better performance than the Xbox One X.”

Gossen added that developers will also have an easy time porting their games from the One S to the Series S, with some games requiring as little as three lines of code altered to get it to run on the newer console.

The Xbox Series S arrives on November 10th.

Source: Eurogamer