Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision may be exclusive to Xbox for two years

A post on the official Xbox blog in France seems to suggest that Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision will be exclusive to Xbox platforms until 2023.

The blog post on the French Xbox Wire site stated (via translation): “Xbox Series X|S have been Dolby Atmos compatible since their release and Dolby Vision will arrive on these consoles sometime in 2021, with both technologies remaining exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem for two years.”

The post has since been removed, but not before it was spotted and screenshotted by business analyst Roberto Serrano on Twitter.

UPDATE: Microsoft has issued a statement to VGC claiming the French blog post was published by mistake and that “there is no exclusivity agreement”.

“A blog post was mistakenly published by a local Xbox team that included inaccurate information regarding exclusivity of Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision on Xbox Series X|S. There is no exclusivity agreement of either tech on Xbox. We are proud to partner with Dolby to offer Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision to gamers on Xbox and will have more to share about the general availability of Dolby Vision on Xbox Series X|S soon.” – Microsoft spokesperson

ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES: Currently, PS5 supports neither Dolby standard for games.

As well as the claim of exclusivity, the post also suggests that the official Xbox Wireless Headset will have Dolby Atmos support until the end of September, at which point players will have to pay for a licence to use it.

“Our partnership with Dolby allows you to activate Dolby Atmos for Headphones on all Xbox Wireless Headsets until September 30, 2021,” it states. “After this trial period, you will be able to purchase the license for the app directly from Dolby.”

Last month Microsoft launched a Dolby Vision test for Xbox Series X/S users who are members of its Insider program.

“When you play in Dolby Vision, you unlock the most realistic and lifelike visuals the game has to offer, with brightness, contrast, color, and depth that goes beyond even traditional HDR games,” Dolby claims.

It says Dolby Vision offers 40x brighter highlights and up to 12-bit colour depth on supported TVs.

According to Forbes, Dolby has said it’s “working closely with TV manufacturers to make Dolby Vision for gaming as seamless and automatic for as many TVs as possible” by the time the technology rolls out for all Xbox Series X/S users.

It also plans to announce which specific games will be making the most of Dolby Vision by incorporating it into their graphics engines.