The Xbox team heard the suggestion that games on their platform might not take advantage of new-gen features to provide a new experience, and Xbox Games Marketing exec Aaron Greenberg tweeted “Generations of games that play on latest HW taking advantage of next-gen innovation offering more choice, value & variety than any console launch ever. All our Studios titles launch into Game Pass & you get those next-gen game upgrades for free.” That follows Phil Spencer’s December blog post that said: “Building on our compatibility promise, with Xbox Series X we’re also investing in consumer-friendly pathways to game ownership across generations. Leading the way with our first-party titles including Halo Infinite in 2020, we’re committed to ensuring that games from Xbox Game Studios support cross-generation entitlements and that your Achievements and game saves are shared across devices.”

Xbox believes in generations. Generations of games that play on latest HW taking advantage of next-gen innovation offering more choice, value & variety than any console launch ever. All our Studios titles launch into Game Pass & you get those next-gen game upgrades for free.

— Aaron Greenberg (@aarongreenberg) May 29, 2020

Highlighting its “generations” of compatible titles and Smart Delivery setup that will download the right version for your hardware in comparison to Sony’s still-murky plans for compatibility is especially timely. Eurogamer reports Sony has told PS4 developers that all games submitted after July 13th must be PS5 compatible, with all the same features available that players experience on PS4.

It’s pretty light for a console battle, although it could get more interesting once we see some real next-gen exclusive games, find out how much these boxes will cost, or even get the slightest glimpse at the PlayStation 5. The PS5 is pushing the DualSense controller as a major differentiating factor, and we’d hope it’s a bit more relevant to gameplay than the DualShock 4 touchpad has been. Of course, Xbox can’t really talk there — many of those Kinects that shipped with every Xbox One launch console never saw much use either.