We’ve heard ‘Optimized for Xbox Series X’ thrown around quite a lot this year. As a result, we encountered a similar initiative when Xbox One X birthed from Microsoft‘s vast cavern of wealth. But what does this actually mean? Is this simply a slogan for Xbox Series X exclusives, or is there more than meets the eye here?
A Live Wire?
In Will Tuttle’s latest on Xbox Wire, the big green sets out to clarify this apparent unique selling point:
“Optimized for Xbox Series X is the indicator for games that take advantage of the full power of Xbox Series X. Since Xbox Series X offers developers unparalleled power and speed, this empowers them to create the experiences they want and embrace a range of features and capabilities based on what is best for their individual titles. When you hear a game has been Optimized for Xbox Series X, you’ll know that the developer has either natively designed or fully rebuilt their game to take full advantage of the unique capabilities of our most powerful console ever”
A Literal Game Changer?
The ‘Optimized for Xbox Series X’ experience is being presented as a game-changer when it comes to how third-party titles perform on Series X. As a result, some major releases are happy to wear the Optimised for Xbox Series X badge. Here’s a list of first and third-party titles we can expect to have that extra level of polish:
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
- Bright Memory Infinite
- Call of the Sea
- Chivalry 2
- Chorus
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Destiny 2
- DiRT 5
- FIFA 21
- Gears 5
- Halo Infinite
- Hitman 3
- Madden NFL 21
- Marvel’s Avengers
- Outriders
- Scarlet Nexus
- Scorn
- Second Extinction
- The Ascent
- The Medium
- Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2
- Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Collating with the Coalition
Xbox Wire also caught up with Mike Rayner, Technical Director at ‘Gears’ studio ‘The Coalition’ regarding eliminating load times with Xbox Velocity Architecture Technology (XVA for short):
“As a game developer one of the most exciting improvements that far exceeds expectations is the massive I/O improvements on Xbox Series X. With the Xbox Series X, out of the gate, we reduced our load-times by more than 4x without any code changes. With the new DirectStorage APIs and new hardware decompression, we can further improve I/O performance and reduce CPU overhead both of which are essential to achieve fast loading. As we look to the future, the Xbox Series X’s Sampler Feedback for Streaming (SFS) is a game-changer for how we think about world streaming and visual level of detail.”
For the full article, click here to learn more about ‘Optimised for Xbox Series X’ and ‘XVA’.
