Backwards compatibility has been the cornerstone of Microsoft's pitch for the upcoming Xbox Series X and Series S consoles. At launch, Microsoft will have over 1000 games available to play. Sure, the vast majority of those games will be older titles or games upgraded to work on the current-gen consoles, but even if you're playing an older game on the Series X/S, it'll look better than it did on your old Xbox.
One of the big reasons for that is a feature called Auto HDR, an AI-implemented upgrade that adds high dynamic range to games that never had it to begin with. Understanding HDR requires a lot of technical stuff about luminosity and color range, but the gist is that the displayed image's colors are brighter and more vibrant than ever before. Most new TVs and gaming monitors support HDR, so adding it to older games that didn't will be like a sudden and striking upgrade.
At least, for most games. A new report from Digital Foundry confirms that Microsoft is working through its backwards compatible library to make sure Auto HDR works, but there are a few hiccups here and there. An example provided in the report is GTA 4, where a character's white jacket became blindingly bright thanks to the HDR upgrade.
While Auto HDR will be on by default for most of the Xbox Series X/S library, "Microsoft is actually disabling Auto HDR on titles where it feels the effect doesn't quite work." And if you prefer the way the game looked originally without the HDR tweaks, then you can always disable Auto HDR at the system level.
On the plus side, every game played on the Series S/X stands to benefit from the increased horsepower that both consoles offer, which will result in better frame rates and shorter load times.
The Xbox Series S and Series X both launch on November 10.
Source: Digital Foundry