Microsoft insist the Xbox One S won't boost performance

Xbox planning lead Albert Penello said today that Xbox One games will look "identical" on the Xbox One S despite small boosts in processing power.

The additional CPU and GPU access is in order to enable HDR and will have "no impact" on the games, he said. "To support HDR, we give people access to a little more CPU and GPU. That's it."

Some reports, such as one from Polygon (that we reported on last night) suggested the opposite, claiming that games such as Gears of War 4 would perform better on the new console.

"I promise, it won't even show up. It will have no impact on games at all. Literally no impact. They will be identical. It's nothing, it is literally nothing", Penello made clear.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer said the same thing as well, saying that the Xbox One S "was designed to play Xbox One games exactly the same way your existing Xbox One does". He said the improved power will give it "the ability to support high dynamic range" and that's all.

He said that there may be some "slightly different performance", however, as an unintended consequence of changing the console, but that consumers should "not buy this box if you think you're buying it to play your Xbox One games better, because it was not designed to go do that".

Both are then clear that the Xbox One S can improve visuals and not gameplay, specifically regarding HDR.