Download speeds on consoles are notoriously bad, especially if the Internet is not very fast to begin with. A new feature now being implemented in Xbox One and Xbox Series X / S for Xbox Insiders aims to improve them by making it easier to suspend existing games while downloading new ones.
“The suspension in the queue will allow you to download at full speed while making sure your game can be resumed (or that it can be resumed quickly in the X | S series),” said Eden Marie, chief engineer of Xbox wrote yesterday on Twitter. He also shared a screenshot of what this new suspend feature will look like when it finally arrives for other users of the platform:
Currently, downloads are much slower when you have an open game, as Xbox consoles reserve a portion of their connectivity for the potential online functionality of anything that plays. The new suspend option will allow you to suspend your current game without opening a new one to achieve a faster download speed.
It’s a pretty granular change, but also very welcome, especially if, like me, you basically always have games stuck in the background. Currently, PS4 has no similar option and Switch allows you to close the game completely to download anything. Meanwhile, in my S series, I constantly remove old games and download new ones using Game Pass. Given the range of great games that have recently hit the Netflix-style subscription service, it’s sure to come in handy as long as it’s released to everyone.
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