Yeah, Sony offers the best IPTV service right now, but you don't need specific hardware and inputs to run it, as Ethernet ports has been standard on consoles for more than a decade.....OTOH, Media and TV was a big pitch from MS, especially with Kinect integration..as they used voiceovers to put the xbox on, change channels, snap, skype etc...all in one fell swoop.. It was all the media/journalists spoke about prior to XB1's launch, but the execution was so poor, people got tired of trying it and it failed...Usually gimmicks never last much beyond the first hour or first day or so anyway and MS backtracked from there...
As for AC, I have no problems with AC using checkerboarded....I have a problem with Phil Spencer saying that the XBONEX was a "TRUE 4k" console and that those checkerboarded methods the other console is using is not going to be the way of the XBONEX....which proved false very quickly...
Microsoft has never, to my knowledge, drawn a line in the sand in any shape or form that suggested they would never utilize such techniques on Xbox One X. The primary commitment was that games being made by Microsoft, that they're launching in the scorpio time-frame, they will make sure they can natively render at 4K.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech...0709313&PID=6149513&SID=ita1plmcu100ag8y00dth
Loftis says Microsoft is already exploring virtual reality options and games for Xbox, which will support VR with Scorpio, as well as prepping titles for the boost in visual quality. "Any games we're making that we're launching in the Scorpio time frame, we're making sure they can natively render at 4K."
Notice what you don't see there? You don't see a commitment that every game ever launched on the console will be Native 4K, or even that every game that comes directly from Microsoft will always be native 4K. And Microsoft, for more than a year now, through Phil Spencer and through others, has made clear that developers were not required to go for native 4K, and were free to use the available power however they saw fit to do so. And, surprise! That's what developers are doing.
So what you're left with is you have an issue with Microsoft calling it a true 4K system? Based on early reports so far, a lot of games are in fact running at 4K on the system, even if some are doing so through checkerboarding. You're still getting the same number of pixels on screen, albeit in a less resource intensive manner, but at the end of the day you're getting results that are nearly imperceptible from the real thing by the large majority of gamers. You have places like digital foundry having to zoom in something in the order of 300% just to spot that this is going on? Let's be real. Unless all of this stuff ends up proving false come release, Xbox One X is a system that can play xbox one's most visually impressive games in addition to major visual improvements at 4K resolution, and even at a NATIVE 4K resolution. How can I say this? Because it already is.
Isn't Gears 4 one of the most visually impressive titles on Xbox One right now? Well, according to this link
https://gearsofwar.com/en-gb/community/gears-4-xbox-one-x
it's going to be running 4K native on Xbox One X with updated, higher resolution textures across characters and environments, with newly added real-time dynamic shadows and even improved lighting. If one of the most impressive looking games on the current Xbox One, period, will be able to run at native 4K with major visual enhancements layered on top, love it or hate it, Xbox One X is a legit 4K gaming console. That was always the goal. To take xbox One games and be able to run them on X at 4K. if some developers decide they don't want to do native 4K and instead do checkerboard 4K, but still arrive at the same number of pixels utilizing a clever resource saving trick, who cares. it still looks amazing. Look at Forza 7. The game looks flat out sick. It looks incredible. Just look at the thing, especially if you haven't seen it in HDR. Have you seen high quality vids of Assassin's Creed running on Xbox One X? Of course you have. It looks fucking incredible, does it not? Does it somehow NOT look 4K to you? Because it sure as hell looks 4K to me, although even if it wasn't very few would even be able to tell in the first place lol. Going a step further, does Assassin's Creed Origins NOT look like a game that's clearly running on a high end PC rig of today? Because that's sure as hell how good it looks.
So, take issue with whatever messaging of the console that you want. Take issue with Microsoft having the "audacity" to place the characters 4K right on the chip, take issue with any number of Microsoft related messaging on the console, but guess what? The console is actually doing in many cases what they say it can do. As an example of why it's senseless to trip all over them for calling it 4K, even Sony calls PS4 Pro a 4K gaming system. You realize this, right? There are even cases where games on PS4 Pro are described as having a "4K Mode," but in reality are neither native 4K, nor are they even checkerboarding up to a proper 4K resolution. Some games "4K mode" is actually 1800p checkerboard, and in some cases even lower than that. GTS', a great looking game, but a great looking game whose "4K mode" is in the end not actually sporting an end result image that resolves to 3840x2160 pixels. At the end of the day who cares so long as the game looks amazing, am I right? God of War is not likely to be native 4K, and possibly not even checkerboard 4K even on PS4 Pro, but we all still know it's going to look amazing. So why are we getting caught up in the whole resolution trap when Xbox, again, has been saying for a whole year they are not mandating 4K for games, and devs can do whatever they want with the hardware?
Know what Microsoft didn't say once in the original Scorpio announce video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1dRgWpGePs
They didn't say "Native 4K" They said "handle 4K resolutions" "True 4K resolution" "4K gaming"
Shocking though it may be "handle 4K resolutions" can also mean checkerboarding to 4K. "4K gaming" can also mean checkerboarding to 4K, or even 4K with dynamic scaling. Who ever said it had to be true 100% of the time? And if you want to stress the true 4K part, they have some mighty impressive looking games at Native 4K as well, one of which just so happens to be one of the most visually impressive xbox one titles currently, which is Gears of War 4. We know not every game is going to pump out native 4k on the system, but let's also not act as if the only thing pushing 4K on Xbox One X is solitaire.