Microsoft Plans More First-Party Games For Xbox Series X Optimizations

Gears 5 was recently revealed to be receiving an Xbox Series X optimized version for free through the magic of Xbox Smart Delivery. Microsoft has now confirmed that Gears 5 will not be alone in benefiting from the next-generation hardware.

In a recent interview with Xboxygen, head of Xbox France Ina Gelbert revealed that more games from Xbox Game Studios are in the pipelines to receive their respective Xbox Series X optimized versions. While Gelbert refrained from mentioning the games in question, speculations are already dictating games like Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2 to make the cut.

Like Gears 5, these upgrades will release for free through Xbox Smart Delivery, meaning that purchasing a game on Xbox One will net the Xbox Series X version for free. The upgraded (and optimized) versions are expected to offer better textures, higher resolutions, and most importantly, better and higher frame-rates.

The Coalition confirmed a couple of days ago that the next-generation re-release of Gears 5 will utilize the full ultra settings of the PC version. The Xbox Series X version of Gears 5 will not only target 60 frames per second for the campaign cutscenes, but also nearly 120 frames per second for the multiplayer. Furthermore, Gears 5 on Xbox Series X will feature heavily decreased load times, ray-traced global illumination, better fog, increased particle counts, and more, perhaps enough to trump the PC version as well in certain areas.

Beyond first-party offerings, third-party developers are also jumping in to benefit from the more powerful hardware. Epic Games, for example, recently announced that Fortnite would receive a next-generation release on Xbox Series X as well as PlayStation 5. The announcement came on the heels of the Unreal Engine 5 demo that showcased impressive details of how a next-generation game could run in the near future.