Xbox Confirms Expandable Storage for the Series X, 120FPS for Gears 5, and Many More Details

This morning, the Xbox team continued their slow drip of information on the next-generation powerhouse in the Series X.

Through a new post on the Xbox Blog, we now know some additional details of the Series X along with some further explanation of the technology that will power Xbox games in the near future.

First, more specific technical details were shared:

While we knew the majority of the above, it’s nice to have Xbox confirm the bandwidth details and the expandable storage which will be a 1TB (at launch) add-on that can be purchased separately. This would give players the capability to have up to 2GB of storage that benefits from the ultra-high bandwidth internal memory versus a slower, external drive (even an SSD).

Below is a quick demo highlighting the speed you can expect:

Next they detail some of the improvements you can expect to existing titles by using Gears 5. In particular it’s mentioned that not only will the Series X run the title at PC’s maximum “ultra” settings, but that it also has a higher particle count than PC. But that’s not all:

There were also some noticeable improvements in a few other areas as well. Load times were extremely fast, and the team was able to turn on some features that, while previously implemented, had to be turned off for the Xbox One X version. This included contact shadows (providing extra depth to objects) and self-shadow lighting on plants and grass, making every scene feel more realistic. Rayner also shared that the game is already running over 100 FPS and that the team is investigating implementing 120 FPS gameplay for multiplayer modes, giving players an experience never before seen on consoles. Most impressive of all? The fact that the team was able to get all of this up and running in a matter of weeks.

The Xbox team also introduced Xbox Velocity Architecture which is described as follows:

“a revolutionary new architecture optimized for streaming of in game assets. This will unlock new capabilities that have never been seen before in console development, allowing 100 GB of game assets to be instantly accessible by the developer. The components of the Xbox Velocity Architecture all combine to create an effective multiplier on physical memory that is, quite literally, a game changer.”

“The CPU is the brain of our new console and the GPU is the heart, but the Xbox Velocity Architecture is the soul,” said Andrew Goossen, Technical Fellow on Xbox Series X at Microsoft. “The Xbox Velocity Architecture is about so much more than fast last times. It’s one of the most innovative parts of our new console. It’s about revolutionizing how games can create vastly bigger, more compelling worlds.”

 

“Competitive gamers and the best gaming experiences demand precise, responsive controls,” said Goossen. “The Xbox team analyzed the entire end to end input pipeline, from the controller to the console and from the console to the display and we challenged ourselves to identify every opportunity to further reduce latency to provide the best experience for gamers on Xbox.”

Lastly, the team focused on the improvements to the entire catalog of Xbox titles in backwards compatibility. In particular, players will see even more improvements to their favorite titles.

“The team came and told us about Xbox Series X. They said ‘What can you do with even more power?’ So, the challenge was set. They gave us the Xbox One X and it was like we got this big playground to play with,” said Peggy Lo, Principal Program Management Lead, Backward Compatibility. “Then we got the Xbox Series X and it was like we had a whole amusement park to play in.”

Players will see the benefits of the improved hardware of Xbox Series X for backwards compatible games, including improved boot and load times, more stable frame rates, higher resolutions and improved image quality. The Compatibility team is also continuing to create entirely new techniques and innovation that we can use to further enhance the existing catalog of games when running on Xbox Series X.

And of course, the team has demoed the Quick Resume feature which will allow you to suspend up to 5 games which can all be returned to instantly.

Our Take

If this doesn’t get you excited for next-generation, we’re really not sure what will. Amazing graphics, instant access to the games you love, improvements to all generations of titles, 120fps on titles like Gears 5, and more. Get ready!