First off, the May Inside Xbox live stream was, based on set expectations a disappointment. I know a good majority of people watching were expecting to see some serious Assassin’s Creed Valhalla gameplay. I have to admit that Ubisoft should be ashamed of itself. We were promised gameplay, of which we got about three seconds mixed in with more cinematic trailer. That aside, I’ve seen a lot of complaining about graphics of the games shown off during the event, but nobody seemed to pay attention to the fine print.
I understand that a lot of people were hoping to see some next-gen graphics during the event, and it didn’t happen.
There’s a good chance that we’ll see exactly that in July when first-party titles are shown off, but the games that we saw during this month’s presentation were far from indicative of what the Xbox Series X is capable of. It was all in the fine print that, seemingly, nobody paid attention to.
Did you notice how almost every game had that “smart delivery” logo at the bottom when it started? How about the fine white print that said the game was “enhanced for Xbox Series X?”
To the best of my understanding, most of the games shown off during the event were games designed for current-gen consoles and enhanced with slightly better graphics, textures, etc. Much like games are now “Xbox One X Enhanced.” They look better than they will on a current-gen console, but aren’t next-gen games by any means. That explains why the cars in Dirt 5 looked no different from the cars in the last game. That’s why you didn’t seen excessively stunning graphics. Sure, what we saw is indicative of what games enhanced for next-gen consoles will look like, but that’s entirely different from what next-gen games will be.
With any luck, we’ll see some true next-gen gameplay in July during the first-party demonstration but you should keep in mind that next-gen games aren’t going to be widely available for at least another year or two. If you’re going to be disappointed, be disappointed with Ubisoft who downright lied to you, not Microsoft or the other parties that showcased their Series X enhanced gameplay.
In the meantime, here is each and every trailer that we saw during the live stream – just in case you missed any:
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