Microsoft's Xbox leader Phil Spencer says that the company won't force game developers to use the processing power of its upcoming 'Project Scorpio' console to reach 4K resolutions.
The console was first announced at E3 2016 and is due for release in the holiday period of 2017. Microsoft says it will be the most powerful game console ever made, and will allow games to be played natively on 4K TV displays. However, when asked by a fan on Twitter if games would be forced to hit that 4K resolution for "Project Scorpio", Spencer seemed to indicate that was not going to be the case:
@ThatDudeizEric We'll talk more about this later but we never said we'd mandate 4K framebuffer, we won't.@ThatDudeizEric We'll talk more about this later but we never said we'd mandate 4K framebuffer, we won't.— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) June 20, 2016June 20, 2016
In theory, that means game developers could decide to make a game for "Project Scorpio" but have it run natively at 1080p, but upscale it to 4K. That could allow those games to include some huge upgrades in textures and graphics that would normally not be able to be used in an Xbox One game.
In a live streaming chat on Giant Bomb (via Videogamer), Spencer confirmed that he would "absolutely be open" for games made for "Project Scorpio" to use the hardware other than to hit the 4K resolution barrier:
"We're going to talk more specifics about Project Scorpio so we'll get into more of the details," he continued, "but I think creative freedom and how you want to use the power of the box is something that I would support. I came from first-party as you guys know, so putting the right tools in the hands of the best creators is our job as the platform."
