A new Xbox One X 4K games announcement has been made by Microsoft that looks set to prove very popular with fans.
While there are plenty of titles confirmed to be getting enhanced editions with the upgraded console, some will likely prove more popular than others.
And it just so happens that this week saw a major new announcement regarding a beloved franchise.
Halo 5 Guardians has now been confirmed as another Xbox One X game that will offer 4K support.
Native 4K resolution will be available on the Halo 5 Xbox One X version and it wasn’t the only announcement made this week.
It has now been confirmed that a series of Halo titles will be given an upgrade patch for the upcoming console release.
This will include Halo Wars 2 and Halo: The Master Chief Collection, on top of the already announced Halo 5: Guardians launch.
This was confirmed during a recent Halo Waypoint, in which 343 revealed they wanted to: “bring [Halo: MCC] forward and modernize many of the game’s systems to take advantage of Xbox platform advancements since its original launch.”
Halo Wars 2 will see some “visual upgrades” as part of its patch, while the MCC will also get a new system in which players can test out new builds of the game moving forward.
It seems Microsoft have a little bit of unfinished business to wrap up with the Master Chief Collection, following its rocky initial launch on the Xbox One in 2014.
More is expected to be announced in the coming weeks and ahead of the Xbox One X release date in November.
Microsoft will need to solve this problem if the Xbox One X is to be a success in Japan.
Xbox One sales are massively down in Japan, where the console sometimes shifts fewer than 50 units a week.
Microsoft has acknowledged the problem in the past, admitting that it doesn’t have enough Japanese-centric games available in the region.
But according to NIS America CEO Takuro Yamashita, the problem is bigger than just a lack of games.
In an interview with MCV, Yamashita said that Microsoft hasn’t been very supportive to Japanese publishers.
“Honestly speaking, Microsoft’s approach to Japanese games hasn’t been very supportive,” he said.
Another problem is the minimum order requirement, which doesn’t lend itself to niche titles.
“Microsoft, you know, for Japanese games, there’s still a very niche element to them, no matter what it might be,” he continued.
“Microsoft also has a minimum order quantity for their games, and their whole structure isn’t really geared toward niche games or smaller games like Japanese titles, so they’re not really supportive of Japanese games or developers.”
NIS America, which publishes games such as Disgaea, hasn’t ruled out Xbox one support in the future, but only if the right situation presents itself.
When it comes to the future, Microsoft have ruled out certain tactics to take on Sony’s PS4 Pro and future PS5 console.
This generation has seen the PlayStation dominate and Microsoft forced to play catch-up.
And while it may have helped to have had the Wii U as a weak rival, the Nintendo Switch is off to a roaring start.
So in the years to come, Microsoft will be hoping to come out ahead against the likes of the PS5.
But one way they will not be trying to reclaim the top spot will be through yearly upgrades.
While the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro have confirmed that mid-generation refreshes can prove popular, there appears to be a limit to Microsoft’s ambitions.
Albert Penello, the senior director who leads marketing for Xbox consoles globally, revealed to MCV UK that Backwards Compatibility bonuses will only be going so far.
“I’m certainly not an advocate of ‘we’re going to do a new console every year’,” Penello explained.
“But consumers are more used to this idea that they can buy devices with different performance levels, when a new generation of hardware comes out, their old stuff still works.”
“We care a lot about compatibility, we have a huge effort around compatibility, and that’s not just backwards compatibility.
“I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know that we care a lot about compatibility and in this day and age people have shifted to caring more about their community and their apps, than caring about the piece of hardware that they’re on, and we have just moved with that.