Microsoft have been putting a lot of emphasis on the Xbox Series X’s much-touted Velocity Architecture in the lead-up to their next-gen console’s looming launch. Recently, they shared new details on the hardware, explaining what it’s comprised of and what exactly it is that it will allow developers to do with their next-gen games. Jason Ronald, director of program management at Xbox also talked about what those who will be actually playing games on the Xbox Series X can expect from it in terms of the impact it will have.
Ronald wrote: “As the industry’s most creative developers and middleware companies have begun to explore these new capabilities, we expect significant innovation throughout the next generation as this revolutionary new architecture enables entirely new scenarios never before considered possible in gaming.
He went on to explain that the Velocity Architecture’s capabilities “go well beyond the raw specifications of the hardware itself”, and that it instead “fundamentally rethinks how a developer can take advantage of the hardware provided by the Xbox Series X.”
“From entirely new rendering techniques to the virtual elimination of loading times, to larger, more dynamic living worlds where, as a gamer, you can choose how you want to explore, we can’t be more excited by the early results we are already seeing,” he added.
Finally, Ronald mentioned that the Velocity Architecture has also enabled a number of neat new platform-level features that “improve the overall gaming experience”, such as Quick Resume.
He said: “In addition, the Xbox Velocity Architecture has opened even more opportunities and enabled new innovations at the platform level, such as Quick Resume which enables you to instantly resume where you left off across multiple games, improving the overall gaming experience for all gamers on Xbox Series X.”
Next-gen hardware usually takes a coupe of years to get going, so it’ll be interesting to see how long it takes before developers really start to leverage the Velocity Architecture – among other things – to create new experiences, especially with Microsoft (and presumably most third party developers) looking to keep a cross-gen approach going for the immediate future.
Either way, it certainly looks like there’s plenty to be excited about with the Xbox Series X’s hardware, so here’s hoping developers can find exciting ways to use it.