Dolby Vision gaming launches first on Xbox Series X and S

Microsoft is bringing Dolby Vision gaming support to its Xbox Series X / S consoles today. The feature has been in testing since May and will be available in more than 100 HDR games. While Xbox has supported the HDR10 standard for years, Dolby Vision gaming is appearing first on Xbox consoles and offers support for dynamic metadata. Microsoft says this should result in “brighter highlights, sharper contrast, and more vibrant colors.”

“There are more than 100 next-gen HDR titles optimized for Series X / S that will feature Dolby Vision today, and in the future you’ll see more games like Halo Infinite taking full advantage of Dolby Vision,” explains Katie Slattery, an Xbox program manager at Microsoft.

Microsoft has also been working with Dolby to bring some benefits of Dolby Vision to existing HDR10 and Auto HDR games. Microsoft is bringing “new visual enhancement capabilities that utilize Dolby Vision technology to deliver an improved visual experience for thousands of existing HDR10 and Auto HDR games,” says Slattery.

Developers can choose between integrating Dolby Vision into their game engine or taking advantage of the built-in Dolby Vision technology within the Xbox developer platform. Games that use Auto HDR aren’t true Dolby Vision games, but Microsoft says they’ll benefit from the Dolby Vision mapping technology on Xbox to display more accurate images on Dolby Vision TVs.

You’ll need a compatible Dolby Vision TV to take advantage of this new feature on the Xbox Series X / S consoles, and Microsoft is also recommending enabling automatic low-latency mode (ALLM). Dolby Vision is compatible with ALLM, Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and 120Hz games.

You can check in Settings > General > TV & display options > 4K TV details to see whether your TV will support Dolby Vision. If it does, you can enable Dolby Vision gaming support in Settings > General > TV & display options > Video Modes > Dolby Vision for Gaming. You may need the latest TV firmware update to enable Dolby Vision or 120Hz modes.