Xbox Series X will let players jump straight back into games even if console reboots, Microsoft says

Console will also be able to pause multiple games at once

Andrew Griffin
Thursday 27 February 2020 17:26 GMT
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(Microsoft)

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The new Xbox will be able to leap straight back into games – even if the console has been rebooted.

The latest feature to be revealed will mean that usual problems like updates won't kick players out of games, and they will be able to pick up back where they started.

It was revealed by Microsoft's Larry Hyrb on the company's official podcast. Mr Hyrb is one of a number of people within the company who are already playing the new console.

“I had to reboot because I had a system update, and then I went back to the game and went right back to it,” Mr Hyrb said. “So it survives a reboot.”

The feature comes after Microsoft revealed a host of details about the new console, showing off both specs and the new features they would enable.

Those included a "Quick Resume" feature that will allow players to suspend the state of a variety of games, rather than just the one, as permitted on the current on the Xbox One.

In the same podcast, Jason Ronald, Microsoft's director of Xbox program management, made mention of a feature he called "audio ray tracing".

The company has already talked about how the more mainstream technology of ray tracing will enable far more accurate lighting and reflections within games. Audio ray tracing appears to apply the same technology to sound, allowing games to simulate how noises would interact with the game's environment.

“With the introduction of hardware accelerated ray tracing with the Xbox series X, we’re actually able to enable a whole new set of scenarios, whether that’s more realistic lighting, better reflections, we can even use it for things like spatial audio and have ray traced audio,” he said.

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