Xbox One X aims to bring 4K power to the living room, and one of the first ways it will accomplish that goal is by adding 4K updates to existing games. According to a tweet from Xbox marketing guru Aaron Greenberg, patches for those older games will be free.
Yes any title you own that adds a 4K update will be done for free.
— ✖️Aaron Greenberg✖️ (@aarongreenberg) July 11, 2017
When specifically asked about any cost associated with 4K, Greenberg said “any title you own that adds a 4K update will be done for free.” In other words, if you were looking forward to the recently announced Halo 5 Xbox One X update, you won’t have to pay a fee for it. This fact remains true not just for November’s Xbox One X launch titles but every piece of compatible software moving forward.
For those who’ve been following Xbox One X closely this latest clarification may not be earth-shattering news, but it answers a question many gamers still had about software support for the 2017 console. During Microsoft’s E3 briefing in June, Xbox President Phil Spencer said that titles like Gears Of War 4, Killer Instinct, Minecraft, Forza Horizon 3, Final Fantasy XV and Resident Evil 7 would be getting the 4K treatment for free. This new statement assures those same perks apply to all other updates as well. In other words, 4K patches will be costless just like they are on Sony’s PS4 Pro.
While the free nature of 4K updates makes both consoles somewhat similar, however, this minor confusion may also exist due to slight differences between systems that were revealed at the end of June. In an interview with Stevivor, Microsoft reps confirmed that, unlike PS4 Pro, 4K updates will only be sent to those with an Xbox One X console. In the PS4 ecosystem, 4K content is downloaded by all players whether the user’s console is 4K-compatible or not.
From Microsoft’s point of view, the goal is to not just make 4K patches for the Xbox One X a complimentary service but also an efficient one. In addition to letting console owners be selective about downloading 4K content, the hardware maker has also provided developers with tools to trim out unnecessary bloat from language files that don’t make sense for certain regions.
On the surface it would seem that Xbox One pays much greater attention to data caps than PS4, but, if you have an Xbox One X specifically, that may not be the case. PS4 patches haven’t necessarily ballooned in size since the launch of the Pro, but the latest screenshots from the Microsoft Store confirm that the native-4K update for Forza Motorsport 7 is a whopping 100 GB download. That number may not be as high for the older 4K-featured games listed above, but it could become the norm for Microsoft’s triple-A releases down the line. Updates may be free, but exceeding your ISPs data cap is not.
Xbox One X is available Nov. 7 for $499.
Are you glad that Xbox One X 4K patches will be free? Does the massive size of these native-4K updates concern you? Tell us in the comments section!
