I remember when Microsoft announced that the Xbox Series X|S would feature ‘Quick Resume’, a function that allows you to swap between several games almost instantaneously. Many mocked it at the time, “Who needs to play three games at once?”, but, for indecisive people – it’s me, I’m indecisive people – this is an absolutely life changing advancement for gaming on console.
What is Quick Resume? It’s a feature that keeps games that support it to be suspended, rather than closed, so that they can be booted up in a matter of seconds. Quick Resume isn’t really meant for people to swap between several games over the course of an evening – not that there’s anything wrong with doing that – it’s designed for people who play multiple games over the course of a week. I didn’t realise it works even if you turn the console off entirely and unplug it from the main, either.
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My housemates and I recently split the cost of an Xbox Series S because we were frankly sick of waiting for the PS5 to come back in stock. The Series S is way cheaper than a PS5, and Game Pass means we had an instant library full of games without having to buy any ourselves. I started playing Skyrim last week – after spending hours modding it – but then had to put it down and go away for the weekend. I turned the console off, packed my things and left. When I got back, I turned the console on, booted up Skyrim, and was immediately placed straight back into my game. No main menu, no loading screens, nothing. It was amazing. I was profoundly hungover when I returned, so being able to jump into my playthrough with absolutely zero hassle almost brought a tear to my eye – the only reason it didn’t was because of how dehydrated I was.
This is fantastic news for players like me. I like to bounce between games a lot. I tend to have two or three on the go at any one time, because I find my mood doesn’t always align with the main game I’m playing – if I’m in a shooter mood when I’m supposed to be playing Yakuza, I won’t enjoy Yakuza, so I just play a shooter instead. This, and other reasons, mean I really struggle to finish RPGs, though. The problem with this has always been the changing of discs, long load times, and lots of other boring stuff that isn’t me playing a video game – Quick Resume completely remove all of these issues.
The feature is not without its limitations. Not every game supports it – most notably, online games. This makes sense, as the servers in those games kick you out to the main menu after a certain period of interactivity. Still, I’m glad I get to switch between so much of my library on the fly.
I was quite against the push to digital ownership when it started, and although I still enjoy having a physical collection of PlayStation games, I’m coming around to the advantages of streaming and downloading games – as long as the option of physical copies doesn’t disappear anytime soon. I can’t deny the benefits of being able to seamlessly swap between games rather than having to move discs and look around shelves for the right box constantly. Now it’s here, I can’t imagine gaming without Quick Resume.
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