Xbox Series S Backwards Compatibility Explained

The Xbox Series S might be the smallest member of the Microsoft console family, but it’s packed with huge potential. Fans are already banking on the Series S to become an affordable gateway to the next-gen of gaming. And the console could very well succeed in being so.

There has been a lot of talk about backwards compatibility in the upcoming consoles, and so Eurogamer talked to one Series S developers about it.

Further reading: PlayStation CEO Questions Xbox Series S Strategy

The Series S console features impressive hardware with 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU, 10GB GDDR6 RAM, and the AMD RDNA 2 GPU. The console will run titles dating back to the first Xbox (2001) to Xbox One titles with backwards compatibility.

Eurogamer tested the backwards compatibility of Xbox Series S

The tests Eurogamer ran showed that with its powerful hardware, the Series S was able to run games from previous consoles at an enhanced resolution of 1440p. So not only will the Series run those games, but it will also run them with a much-improved resolution than the native 480p/720p. However, it will not work on the games that have a hard-coded fixed resolution.

The Series S console packs powerful hardware in a small size.

While the smallest console in the Xbox family will run the Xbox One S variations of titles, it won’t run the One X variations. This is entirely due to the difference in Series S and One X’s RAM. One X consoles feature 12GB of RAM, which is slightly higher than the 10GB of GDDR6 RAM in Series S. Hence, the Series X will be a more suitable choice for such titles.

The console will give users a superior rendition and improved texture filtering quality than the previous generations of consoles. Moreover, the Series S uses a solid-state drive, which reduces loading times significantly, along with stable gameplay and increased frame rates.

Overall, the backwards compatibility on Series S looks like a win, as of now.