When Microsoft started introducing the invented phrase “Smart Delivery” in all of its Xbox Series X / S marketing last year, it seemed like just another empty keyword pair. Of course, all games would work just after you installed them on your expensive new hardware, whether or not they accepted the Microsoft slogan. Not quite, not exactly!
Nothing made the difference between the standard operating procedure for state-of-the-art games and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X / S smart delivery feature. Marvel Avengers. The next generation version of the RPG game became active yesterday and proved to be a massive headache for those who want to upgrade from PS4 to PS5. The first, they had to make sure that both versions of the game were downloaded and updated on the console. Then they had to migrate the rescue data. Hours and tens of GB of data later, it could delete the PS4 version and eventually it could start playing.
Of course, all this has become somewhat complicated due to how clumsy it can be to actually check which versions of the game you have downloaded on the PS5 and whether they are up to date. Marvel Avengers itself also acted with the in-game option to migrate save data that does not appear for some players. Crystal Dynamics was needed more tweets and a dedicated one Frequently asked questions on the PlayStation site to explain the process, which was intuitive enough to cause many people’s eyes to glow after reading the instructions. “Let’s live here at Sony in the future,” posted on Twitter Forbes writer Paul Tassi.
Meanwhile, on the Xbox Series X / S, things just worked.
G / O Media may receive a commission
Microsoft describes Smart Delivery as a “new technology” that helps you get “Xbox One and Xbox Series X versions of the game in one purchase, and the best version of the game will automatically ship to your console, regardless of generation.” – no further steps are required. “What additional steps may be required?” many of us wondered last year when this explanation was launched. So we used to have our data cataloged and transported by the big tech companies from one phone and computer to another, the idea that games and rescue data wouldn’t do the same thing when we switch from current consoles to new ones, seemed absurd. After all, we weren’t talking about Nintendo.
And yet, Smart Delivery has proven to be a real thing that solves a real problem that otherwise affects the transition to state-of-the-art consoles. Now I take it for granted that I can activate my S series, browse the Microsoft Store, Game Pass and the existing account library and just play anything in seconds, without questions. Then I go back to PS5 and I find that I have already run out of space, because I have duplicate PS4 versions of several games downloaded. Also mine The ghost of Tsushima backup data was not retrieved – PS4 backup startup time. Jesus Christ, I’m sorry I last disconnected you without warning.
What can I say, I thought it would be the last time.