Prior to this current generation of consoles, players wondered if either the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One would support 4K resolution — with both Sony and Microsoft eventually deciding not to make this a feature; at least for the time being.
It wasn't until 2016 when Sony and Microsoft introduced players to the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X/S, which finally added support to play media in 4K — the Xbox One X/S more than the 4K, but that's a topic for another day.
With the next generation of consoles right around the corner, both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S releasing around mid-November, players are now excited to see every game running natively in 4K. Even more so, they are also excited to see their games in 8K, as both consoles will support this feature.
While both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X will be supporting 8K, Microsoft's very own Vice-President of Gaming Phil Spencer is a little skeptic that 8K will become the norm — if at all, even — although he doesn't shy away from the fact that he does see 8K as aspirational technology.
"When I think about games where ray-tracing has had a dramatic impact on my experience as a player. It's kind of spotty. I think 8K is aspirational technology. The display capabilities of devices are not really there yet. I think we're years away from 8K being— if it ever is —standard in video games," revealed Spencer during a recent interview with Wired.
This was in response to the people over at Wired showing Spencer the headlien from an article published on PC Gamer, which read "Ray tracing has failed to deliver on its promise," which in a way, and according to his reply, Spencer actually seems to agree with.
Of course, this doesn't mean that Microsoft will not push for games to be developed with 8K resolution in mind, as this is only Phil Spencer's take on the matter. With that said, it is likely that Spencer isn't the only one thinking that 8K will not become the norm in the future.
At one point it was believed that 3D gaming would be the future, and only Nintendo tried their luck with the Nintendo 3DS — only to drop that idea and shift their focus to the Nintendo 2DS; a Nintendo 3DS without support for 3D. Maybe 8K isn't meant to be in the same way 3D wasn't meant to be. Only time will tell.