Xbox has had a tough few years and has been steadily losing market share PlayStationNintendo Switch and possibly Steam Machine soon. It's true that Microsoft's current hardware line-up leaves a little to be desired, especially on the exclusivity front: there are virtually no modern games that are Xbox-only, as Microsoft releases its first-party games on PC, and has even begun to bring major franchises such as Halo and Gears of War on PlayStation.
This lack of compelling exclusives, along with numerous PR debacles such as allegations of Activision-Blizzard misconduct, multiple major studio closures, and mass layoffs, eroded Xbox's reputation over time. While these are certainly strong reasons to ditch the Xbox brand in favor of the Switch or, more likely, the PS5, it would be disingenuous to say that Xbox doesn't have a leg up on its competition. On the hardware side, the Xbox Series X is still an impressive and user-friendly piece of kit with some great practical features that are often overshadowed by other platform exclusives that dominate the headlines. But it's worth pointing out where Xbox is ahead of the rest of the console market, if only in the hope that its strengths will spread.
For all its strengths, the PS5 still lacks the Xbox's quick refresh feature
Quick succession is the crown jewel of the Xbox line of consoles
The PlayStation has a lot of great hardware features, like reactive triggers and a gyroscope in the DualSense controller, but none of them match the utility and elegance of the Xbox's Quick Resume. Introduced in the Series S and Series X devices, Quick Refresh is exactly what it sounds like: a feature that allows users to switch between several different games on the fly. Users can even resume the game exactly where they left off after turning the console off and on again.
Almost every Xbox game is compatible with this feature, and Xbox itself has said that up to five modern games can queue up in Quick Resume at once, which is a boon for anyone who likes to jump between games at will. It works by saving the contents of the console's RAM to the hardware, essentially “freezing” a moment in game time. With the blazing speeds of the Xbox Series SSD, this moment of gaming time can be quickly loaded and launched in no time. It's a pretty valuable and convenient feature with a number of meaningful use cases, from games that involve a lot of downtime to consoles used by several different members of the household playing different games.
Quick Resume on Xbox is convenient, but beware: it's known to glitch, and it's not the same as saving a game the old-fashioned way.
Fast refresh remains Xbox's biggest advantage over PlayStation
Naturally, few expected the undersized Nintendo Switch to offer anything like Quick Resume, but it's a bit surprising that PlayStation hasn't tried to emulate the feature, given how similar it is to the Xbox Series consoles on the hardware front. The PS5 had something similar in the form of Resume Activity, though that seems to have been wiped from the console as of 2024. Even then, Resume Activity could only work for one game at a time, leaving out the most significant benefit of Quick Resume.
Quick Resume is a bittersweet aspect of the Xbox Series consoles. It's a great quality-of-life feature that really builds on the idea of Xbox being a common hub for gaming and entertainment, but given the poor sales of current-gen Xbox models, it's also a feature that few people have been able to enjoy. Hopefully, other platform holders will fold a quick resume form into their hardware in the future.
