Dolby Vision gaming arrives on Xbox Series X and S, but there's a catch

Back in September, Microsoft confirmed that the Xbox Series X and Series S would be the first-ever games consoles to support Dolby Vision, and it now seems that some users are now able to play games in the format, Forbes reports.

Series X/S gamers with compatible TVs have noticed that HDR games have started playing in Dolby Vision following the latest software update. The feature is currently available to a few Alpha Ring users, members of Xbox’s ‘invite only’ preview club, and only works with 4:2:2 60Hz game content. 

In a statement to Forbes, Microsoft said: “As we announced last year, we're excited to be bringing Dolby Vision support for gaming to our new Xbox consoles in 2021. The feature is currently in testing, and we’ll have more to announce on general availability timing and functionality soon."

While many had previously assumed that Dolby Vision HDR would only feature on titles that use the format in their game engines, players are claiming all HDR games are now being shown in the format. Users are claiming the brightness, black levels, and colour saturation of HDR games now appear more refined compared to playing in HDR10.

This would indicate that the Xbox consoles are forcing Dolby Vision to be applied to all HDR-compatible games, instead of making the most out of games designed for Dolby Vision. But, it’s still early days, so we'll have to see what happens when the feature rolls out to all Xbox Series X/S consoles later this year.

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