The Xbox Series X And S Quick Resume Feature Is Just Fine

The Xbox Series X And S Quick Resume Feature Is Just Fine

Quick Resume is a new flagship feature available for the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. And while it’s been touted as a revolutionary mechanic, it won’t change how you game.

First, not every game is Quick Resume compatible and it’s hard to tell which games can actually use it. Second, and most importantly, you can only really play one game at a time. For testing purposes, it’s great — but in a practical sense, it’s mostly redundant for modern gamers.

How Quick Resume Works On Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S

Quick Resume is automatically switched on, but whether it’s supported depends on each individual title.

If games are compatible, it means you can switch games during gameplay and the Xbox Series S/X will load your save state from exactly where you left it. These save states will remain in place even after you switch the console off.

quick resume xbox series x
Image: The Touryst

Quick Resume can support up to 6 games, but the Xbox Series X or S won’t tell you when a game drops in or out of its memory. It means if you load up a seventh game, one of your games may stop loading via Quick Resume, and it’s usually hard to tell which one. (It appears to be based on game size, but with the process mostly running in the background, it can be hard to tell.)

Equally difficult is determining which games can be stored and which games can’t. There’s no indication a game will be saved in Quick Resume when you leave it, you’ll just have to trust your Xbox. This is a problem because not every game is compatible. Yakuza: Like the Dragon refused to be stored in Quick Resume for me. Sea of Thieves was also not compatible because of its nature as an online game.

Most Xbox Game Pass games I trialled were perfectly fine, but the odd one out (like Yakuza) was an unwelcome surprise. You’ll need to experiment with your owned games to see which ones actually support Quick Resume before trusting it with your precious memory.

One important consideration when evaluating your potential use of Quick Resume is the blistering loading speeds of the Xbox Series X and Series S. Most games boot up in a 5-10 second window (and even less if there’s no obtrusive game logos to get through), a minuscule amount of time to wait to load into your games.

Quick Resume takes about 5-8 seconds to boot up a game stored in its memory (depending on size and how many games you have loaded). Is your life going to be made suddenly more productive by that two second window? Sure, it might add up in the long run but it’s likely you won’t notice the difference. Loading games is a minor inconvenience made so much easier by next gen, you likely won’t get much use out of Quick Resume.

In these modern times we’ve all been conditioned to have the attention span of gnats, but gaming is the rare exception to the rule. When I jump into a game, I’m all in. I want to knuckle down and finish it in one massive go. Playing two, three or even six games at once feels counterintuitive and a great way to invite unwanted stress.

Games are designed to be a complete experience. You’d confuse yourself trying to read 6 books at once. Similarly, playing 6 games at once is a total recipe for disaster.

So the loading speeds are the key here. If you really want to play another game, the Xbox Series X and S already has a quick access UI for loading recent games. That takes less than 10 seconds. Saving is more intuitive in games than ever before and it’s easy to load up your files.

Quick Resume is convenient if you want a quick switcheroo, but it doesn’t feel necessary. And with several games non-compatible with the feature, it can also feel like a bit of a shot in dark. All told, the feature isn’t the revolution some have claimed. Quick Resume is just fine.


The Cheapest NBN 1000 Plans

Looking to bump up your internet connection and save a few bucks? Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


One response to “The Xbox Series X And S Quick Resume Feature Is Just Fine”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *