The natural evolution of graphical fidelity in gaming is upping the resolution. The more pixels that create the image, the more life-like the image becomes. According to an interview with USA Today, Microsoft’s Publishing general manager Shannon Loftis expressed that they will be pushing a higher resolution within first party studios.
“Any games we’re making that we’re launching in the Scorpio time frame, we’re making sure they can natively render at 4k,” said Loftis.
This news shows Microsoft’s latest push for more powerful hardware, especially when comparing it to Sony’s recently announced PlayStation 4 Pro. The Pro focuses heavily on upscaling games to 4k instead of running natively in the resolution for most titles. This means that the hardware displays a 1080p image, but through other processes fills in the additional pixels. Upscaling typically looks closer to 1440p instead of 2160p (4k).
Comparing the PlayStation 4 Pro and Project Scorpio, the ladder sports what appears to be a far more powerful console. Project Scorpio offers 6 teraflops of power compared to the PS4 Pro's 4.2. The Xbox's latest hardware certainly yields enough power to project 4k gaming, lining up with graphics cards like the AMD 480 in power. With that being said, Head of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Andrew House, does not see the PS4 Pro as a Project Scorpio competitor but one to PCs instead. One other area that the Scorpio may be able to get an advantage is if they the processor as has been rumored (potentially with AMD's Vega), while the PlayStation 4 Pro uses the same CPU as the base PlayStation 4, which may serve as a bottleneck for the console's performance.
Games that will likely release around Project Scorpio’s launch and are published by Microsoft include Crackdown 3, Halo Wars 2, State of Decay 2, and a few others. Microsoft has yet to specifically announce which games will run natively in 4k. However, the previously listed games are possibilities if the statement holds to be true.
Microsoft announced Project Scorpio at E3 earlier this year. The latest iteration of the Xbox One launches holiday 2017.
Quick Take
Is graphical fidelity important in games? Sure. I just think Microsoft should work on smoother performance before leaping into a higher resolution. Will reaching a 4k resolution cause framerate to dip? If so, then holding off 4k games would improve the playability of games. If Microsoft can manage 60 FPS at 2160p then that is fantastic but I would like to see them prioritize 60 fps over 2160p.
Are you looking forward to 4k gaming? Will you purchase Project Scorpio at launch? Would you be interested in 4k/30 FPS as the Scorpio may be targeting? Let us know in the comments below!
