Microsoft’s Major Nelson (aka. Larry Hryb) has revealed in a Yahoo chat session that the next-generation Xbox One will include support for ultra high-resolution 4K, as well as 3D support. Following on from the Xbox One’s unveiling on Tuesday, Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi told Forbes that the console’s video and interface will work with HDTV’s.
[quotes]The video and interface portions [will work with next-gen TVs], absolutely. Games developed for 1080p will run at 1080p, obviously. Xbox One supports both 3D and 4K, including 4K for Blu-ray.[/quotes]
It was also revealed by Mehdi that the console will support 4K for Blu-ray at launch, with the possibility of games and other content being available at 4K in the future if they are indeed rendered at that resolution.
4K is also known as Ultra HD which refers to a display resolution of 3840 pixels wide by 2160 pixels tall (8.3 megapixels) or 2160p which is four times as many pixels as in a 1080p resolution. Several electronics companies, such as Sony and LG, have started to manufacture TV’s with the emerging standard, though it’s still a sore spot for price (due to early adaption of the technology, like always).
Another technological hurdle that may limit 4K adoption is file size. As stated by Sony in February, 4K videos could likely require downloads of over 100GB, though Neil Hunt (Netflix’s Chief Product Officer) told The Verge earlier this year that the streaming video service expects to offer 4K video content “within a year or two.”
After the PlayStation 4 reveal in February, Sony’s President Shuhei Yoshida told Polygon that the company’s next-generation console would support 4K output, though not for playing games.
[quotes]The official answer is that the PS4 supports 4K output but for personal contents, like photos or videos. Not games, PS4 games do not work on 4K.[/quotes]
However an update from a Microsoft representative has confirmed to Polygon that Xbox One games will support both native 4K resolution and upscaling to 4K. If this proves to be correct, this gives the Xbox One a slight bump over the PS4 in terms of games resolution support.
Sourced from Polygon.