Microsoft's Xbox Series X/S Consoles Gain A Backwards Compatibility FPS Booster Shot
Sometimes, people want to go back to games they have played previously because of a fun story line or to relive gaming glory days. As hardware and software improve, however, older games don't tend to receive improvements that keep them up to par with newer games. Low FPS in a last-gen game can especially be a bit of a drag because that is not quite how you remembered the game. Now, Microsoft is trying to fix some of the problems by injecting an FPS boost into the arm of a select few games.
Today, Paul Eng, Senior Program Manager at Xbox, wrote about how Microsoft wanted to keep and continue, a “commitment to compatibility […] started back in 2015.” With the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, many titles “benefit[ed] from next generation features like faster loading times and the ability to Quick Resume,” as well as enhancements to visuals from the Xbox team.
Now, that is going one step further with something called FPS Boost, “which employs a variety of new methods for nearly doubling (and in a few instances, quadrupling) the original framerate on select titles.”
The first few games to get this today will be Far Cry 4, New Super Lucky’s Tale, Sniper Elite 4, UFC 4, and Watch Dogs 2. These games were chosen not only because of popularity, but also as a way to showcase how games can benefit from higher framerates. As Eng claims, this is only the beginning as the team will “will announce and release more titles featuring FPS Boost soon, as well roll out new menu icons and system settings in an upcoming system update.”
Overall, this is a pretty sweet feature, but it will be interesting to see if visual fidelity or in-game immersion is impacted at all. Perhaps we will find out more when the FPS Boost update is rolled out to more games later this Spring. If you decide to test out the new FPS Boost, let us know what you think of it below, as we’d love to hear your thoughts.
