Microsoft addresses performance issues and a non-functional Quick-Resume at launch for the new Xbox consoles
Doing anything during a pandemic is no mean feat. I can barely get up in the morning. Meanwhile, Microsoft did manage to launch no less than two new (mostly) impressive consoles in the Xbox Series S and X. However, with all eyes on contrasts between Microsoft’s new consoles and the PlayStation 5, Jason Ronald, director of program management at Xbox, has come out to assure players that fixes are coming on several fronts.
Digital Foundry identified performance disparities between the competing consoles in “optimised titles” like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla with the PS5 having an average 15 per cent performance advantage and as high as 25 per cent advantage over the Series X.
“There’s different kinds of issues that can come up as developers are starting to learn and take advantage of this platform,” Ronald says. “In some cases, they’re just simply bugs in the titles—and we’ve partnered very closely with them, and the developers will go in and fix those bugs because they’re just as committed to delivering that premium experience as we are. In other cases, it’s learning how to use this next-generation platform.”
Microsoft has said it’s “aware of performance issues in a handful of optimized titles” and expects “minor bug fixes” from Xbox platform developers and game studios to resolve those problems.
As for the much touted “Quick Resume” feature, the custom-built SSD-powered Series X feature that allows players to continue multiple games from a suspended state “almost instantly,” Ronald addressed it being missing in action for most next-gen titles at launch.
“As we mentioned prior to launch,” Ronald explains, “as some of these launch games were coming in, we identified some bugs in Quick Resume with some of these new, optimized titles, and we made the decision to actually disable Quick Resume for some of these titles because we want to make sure that players have that best-in-class experience.”
As a result, we can expect the feature to be rolled out on a game-by-game basis.
It’s worth mentioning in defence Master Chief’s favourite platform of choice, that the Xbox Series X does currently have the edge with more 120fps-enabled games if we’re discussing performance. Otherwise, I’m sure it won’t be too long until fixes ensure that “optimised games” quickly resume being optimised.
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