Xbox Series X's Big New Feature Is Better Than We Initially Thought

This week, Microsoft announced a slew of new Xbox Series X features alongside the console's specs. Included in the former was the announcement of Smart Delivery, which should save Xbox gamers a ton of money, and Quick Resume, which should save Xbox gamers a ton of time. That said, new information has since come out about the latter, and it's actually more impressive than we initially thought. More specifically, not only does Quick Resume work when your console is in rest mode, but even when completely turned off.

For those that don't know: Quick Resume refers to the ability of the console to save your current state of the game, and instantly load you back into it. The feature was actually rolled out this generation, but it was limited to one game and limited to rest mode. On Xbox Series X not only will you be able to do this with multiple games at once, but it will work even if you turn your console off completely.

"One of the things that I was noticing when I was in the lab when I was playing it -- I was switching back and forth just real quickly and seamlessly between games, but then I had to reboot because I had a system update," said Microsoft Larry Hryb during a new episode of his Major Nelson podcast. "And then I went back to the game and went right back to it. So it survives a reboot. That's amazing."

The reason the Xbox Series X can save and resume the state of multiple games at once is because of its custom SSD. The Xbox One doesn't have this technology, so it can't do this. However, it's unclear what type of wizardry is allowing the console to achieve this even when it's all the way turned down.

"If I just want to have a quick gaming experience, I can instantly jump in have a great time, and then know that the next time I come back I'll be right where I was," added Jason Ronald, the director of program management at Xbox.

Of course, this isn't the type of feature that will make your games play better, but it's the type of quality-of-life feature that will help distinguish this console generation. Further, it's another example of why more people should be excited about the PS5 and Xbox Series X's utilization of SSD technology.