The download speed on consoles is notoriously bad, especially if your internet is not very fast. A new feature now released on Xbox One and Xbox Series X / S for Xbox Insiders aims to improve them, making it easier to suspend existing games while downloading new ones.
“Suspension in the queue will allow you to download at full speed, while making sure your game stays replayable (or can be replayed quickly in the X | S Series)”, Eden Marie, chief engineer wrote on Twitter yesterday. She also shared a screenshot of what this new suspend feature will look like when it finally reaches the rest of the platform’s users:
Nowadays, downloads are much slower when you have an open game, because Xbox consoles reserve some of the connection capacity for the potential online functionality of any game. The new suspend option will allow you to put the current game on hold, without opening a new one, to get higher download speeds.
It’s a pretty granular change, but also very welcome, especially if, like me, you practically always have interrupted games in the background. Currently, PS4 does not have a similar option, and Switch makes you completely out of the game to download anything. In the meantime, on my S series, I constantly delete old games and download new games through Game Pass. Given the range of great games that are recently coming to the Netflix-style subscription service, it will definitely come in handy whenever it airs for everyone.
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