Xbox 'FastStart' hands-on shows an extremely useful new feature

At E3 2022, Microsoft showed off the new FastStart feature, which is designed to allow you faster access to your games by letting yous offset gameplay while titles are still downloading.

Unlike other types of intelligent delivery that required developers to build their games a certain way, FastStart requires no input from developers and is instead fully handled past the Microsoft Cloud. Microsoft's servers clarify which parts of a game installation are accessed first, and begin compiling the install club to reverberate that progression. As such, games will be ready to play far faster — up to 50 percent faster, co-ordinate to the company.

Equally game installation sizes get bigger, and as more and more than gamers experiment with new titles via Game Pass and other subscription services, this could be a game changer.

FastStart is now available on the Xbox Insider Program on a select few titles for testing. Nosotros took a look to see how it all works.

FastStart is seamless and speedy

FastStart doesn't require whatever input on your part. Information technology'south enabled by default on a championship which is supported past the algorithms. Presumably, Microsoft will prioritize Game Pass titles first to encourage their downloading and employ, but somewhen, it should learn and span across all titles on Xbox Alive.

One of the titles to utilize it first is The Flame in the Flood, which is a stylish survival game and a personal favorite.

Viewing this game in the download queue immediately tells you if FastStart is contributing to the speed of the download, and it gives yous a small red arrow that signifies when it should be ready to play. Various other games on Xbox Live do this if they were built a certain mode, just many won't really work until the championship is fully downloaded, even if information technology says otherwise.

The Flame in the Flood said information technology was prepare to play at just 40 percentage of the full game. It only took around two to iii minutes to get to 40 pct on my connection speed, which is impressive. Over fourth dimension, that'south potentially a lot of minutes and hours saved per year downloading games.

Once it hitting 40 per centum, a notification popped upwards to permit me know that my game was ready to play, courtesy of FastStart. I booted it up, and it ran as though information technology was fully downloaded, with the remainder of the game downloading in the background.

A truly impressive starting time for FastStart

This applied science is impressive, and if it rolls out across all Xbox Live titles, information technology gives Xbox another advantage in a globe where all-you-can-eat subscription services and ballooning game installation filesizes are becoming commonplace. Nosotros'll keep an eye on how FastStart develops in the coming weeks, merely we're already quite excited for the tech.

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