Windows 11 gamers can get one of the Xbox Series X’s best features if comments from a Microsoft executive are something to lean on.
Tom’s guide reports that during the launch of the new handheld from ROG ally Asus, Roanne Sones, head of Xbox devices at Microsoft, dropped a rather serious hint that Quick Resume may come to PC at some point.
For the uninitiated, the Quick Resume feature is a really cool feature on Xbox that lets you jump right into a game without having to load up, navigate the main menu, and so on. You can freeze multiple (supported) games (up to five of them) exactly where you left them to resume any of them in no time.
In an interview at the ROG Ally launch uploaded to YoutubeSones talked about cross-platform and the need to play on your PC, then switch to your mobile device and receive wherever you are, no waiting – no fuss, just back to the action.
She went on to mention that consoles have some capabilities in this regard, most notably Quick Resume, and asked, “What do we think about integrating this into the Windows platform?”
Sones then talks about how Ally “makes us [Microsoft] think differently about experiences” on a variety of devices, from laptops to PCs.
Analysis: Manual mode now seems more likely…
While we have to be wary of what are just handwritten comments, the fact that a Microsoft executive openly mentioned Quick Resume in this way gives us a pretty old heap of hope that this feature will eventually make the transition from Xbox to Windows 11 possible.
This would be a boon for all PC gamers, especially those interested in portable devices like the Asus ROG Ally, to avoid the hassle of clunky Windows 11 interface elements (which ruin the Ally experience) and loading games.
More broadly, we recently heard that Microsoft is looking at a “portable mode” for Windows 11, which would completely change the desktop to be more suitable for portable gaming on a small touch screen, using a much simplified launcher-style UI. This would be perfect for ROG Ally and other portable gaming devices (even a Steam Deck which you can run Windows 11 on if you wish).
For us, Sones’ comments here definitely add weight to the perspective that this is something Microsoft takes seriously. And given the popularity of Steam Deck and the interest in alternatives like ROG Ally in general, it raises the odds that we’ll see this portable mode realized as the next string to the Windows 11 gamer’s arc. (Along with better performance thanks to DirectStorage, another boon that will become increasingly important as time goes on, and a significant number of games actually support the technology).
Let’s face it, since Windows 11 adoption has been pretty slow so far, Microsoft needs all the ammunition it can muster when it comes to new features to convince people to upgrade from Windows 10.