At the E3 2019, the Xbox Project Scarlett was announced for Christmas 2020. But what about the games? Will we have to part with our current favorite games?
What is it about? At Microsoft’s presentation at E3, the new generation of Xbox was officially introduced. The upcoming console is currently being developed under the name “Project Scarlett”.
New games for the Xbox Scarlett have been hardly announced. Only Halo Infinite was confirmed as a launch title at the fair. But what about our current favorite games, such as Destiny 2, The Division 2, or The Elder Scrolls Online?
Will you be able to play Xbox One games like Destiny 2 and ESO? Yes. Microsoft stated that they are working to bring “every previous game” to the Xbox Scarlett.
This means every game that is currently playable on the Xbox One, including over 600 backward-compatible games from previous generations Xbox and Xbox 360. The Xbox Scarlett should be able to play games from four Xbox generations.
However, it is still unknown whether these games will run or look better on the new console. Some games on Xbox One are “Xbox One Enhanced” and have been graphically overhauled.
Jason Ronald from the Xbox platform team mentioned in an Interview with IGN:
The team is shifting its focus to ensure that all Xbox One games are playable on future hardware. This includes all Xbox 360 and original Xbox games that are currently available on Xbox One.
Ronald means that Microsoft added its last backward-compatible Xbox and Xbox 360 games to Xbox One this week. No further older games will follow, but the team is focusing on getting current games to work on the upcoming console.
Recently, Rainbow Six Brand Director Alexandre Remy mentioned that the Ubisoft shooter is also to be made playable on the new generation consoles. They are currently speaking with Sony and Microsoft to bring Rainbow Six Siege to PS5 and Xbox Scarlett.
What is backward compatibility? Backward compatibility or backwards compatibility means that older software can run on newer hardware. In the case of Xbox One, these are games from the earlier generations Original Xbox and Xbox 360.
However, this does not mean that all older games run on the Xbox One. More and more games are regularly added to the catalog. If you own one of these games, you can insert the disc, or if you own the game digitally, download it from the store and install it on your console at no additional cost.
Your game saves (if you had cloud save activated on Xbox 360), addons, and achievements from the older game will be transferred to the Xbox One.
What is known about Scarlett? According to Microsoft’s presentation at E3 2019, the upcoming Xbox Scarlett is said to be four times as powerful as the current generation Xbox One. The console is expected to have the following features:
- Up to 120 FPS
- Ray Tracing
- Latest Zen 2 and Navi technology
- New SSD generation that is used as virtual RAM
We have more information about the console in our article on E3.
PS5 vs Xbox Scarlett: The upcoming PlayStation 5 will also offer backward compatibility. Sony has not focused on this feature in its consoles so far and has rather released selected games in a remastered version for newer consoles.
The next console, whose name is not yet known and which we call PS5, is supposed to be backward compatible with the PS4. Further information about PlayStation 5 can be found in this post.
