Xbox Series X killer feature revealed — and it's great news for gamers

Xbox Serial X killer feature revealed — and information technology'south smashing news for gamers

(Paradigm credit: Xbox)

For the showtime time, the upcoming generation of consoles volition be embracing solid land storage. Both Microsoft and Sony volition take built-in SSDs — 1TB for the Xbox Series X and 825GB for the PS5 — and the advantages are obvious. Solid state drives are quicker, meaning games will load and perform far, far faster than before.

Simply the elephant in the room is bulldoze capacity. While the electric current generation tin can just about become away with 500GB to 1TB, the movement to 4K gaming will brand install sizes larger. And while current gamers can merely plug in a cheap external HDD, those planning to do the same with supported SSDs are in for a rude awakening when they see the prices they currently go for.

Fortunately, Microsoft has a pull a fast one on upward its sleeve in society to go along install footprints down.

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"Even beyond the hardware, we've actually fabricated user interface improvements to brand it easier for yous to manage your storage," Xbox's director of programme management Jason Ronald said on a podcast chat with Microsoft teammate Larry 'Major Nelson' Hryb. "As an example, one of the new features that we're calculation is actually for — if a title chooses to support information technology — the power to selectively uninstall different components of the game.

"So, let's say you play a campaign as an example, and and so you want to focus exclusively on multiplayer. If the developers chose to support information technology you can really uninstall the entrada itself so that you can be more in control of how you're actually using your storage, so that you lot really get the about benefit out of the available storage that y'all have."

Information technology sounds pretty similar to Sony'southward plans with the PlayStation 5, which is only every bit well, because triple-A titles are getting larger and larger install footprints. We've already heard that launch title Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Launch Edition will weigh in at 105GB, and even current generation games are ballooning in size.

Our sister site, GamesRadar, has a running list of the worst offenders on PS4. and an installation of Phone call of Duty: Modernistic Warfare (175GB), Destiny 2 (165GB), Red Dead Redemption two (105GB), The Elder Scrolls Online (86GB) and Battlefield 4 (71GB) would wipe out 73% of the PS5's storage.

And that's not even accounting for organisation files. We at present know that the Xbox Series X operating organization volition take up nearly 20% of the 1TB available, and you lot would imagine Sony has similar bad news coming down the tracks. Given that expansion options for both consoles are currently on the expensive side, here'southward hoping that selective installation is something that'southward widely adopted past developers.

Freelance correspondent Alan has been writing almost tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are institute all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When non weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his always-growing games backlog. Or, more than likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.