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Xbox update: Latest software lets players to jump into game downloads much faster

New games should launch in half the time

Andrew Griffin
Friday 06 July 2018 12:24 BST
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Taco Bell and Xbox partner to give fans the chance to win an Xbox One X with the purchase of a Steak Quesarito $5 Box at The Vude on August 31, 2017 in Seattle, Washington
Taco Bell and Xbox partner to give fans the chance to win an Xbox One X with the purchase of a Steak Quesarito $5 Box at The Vude on August 31, 2017 in Seattle, Washington

Xbox games are going to start arriving a lot faster, with a brand new update.

From now, players will be able to jump into playing new games as they are arriving. The technology, called FastStart, should allow people to start playing games after they've bought them twice as fast as before, Microsoft said.

The feature will arrive in the new July update, which is being pushed out to Xboxes now.

FastStart works by prioritising all of the files that a game really needs to download to allow its players to get going. It requires a fairly fast internet connection and will only apply to some games, but in those cases people will be able to get into playing far more quickly.

"With FastStart, we introduced a patented, new technology that gets you into your game in half the time," Microsoft says on a devoted page. "FastStart-enabled games use crowdsourced data to identify the parts of the game you’re most likely to need right away and downloads those parts first.

"You’ll be playing in full-fidelity with just a fraction of the game installed."

The feature is different to a similar feature, referred to as "ready to start", which has been in Xbox games for some time. That usually lets people play an introductory level while the real body of the game downloads, but was slower and less full-featured than FastStart.

The new feature is the main thing arriving in the new July update, but it does also improve search and allow people to group games and apps on their dashboard to allow them to be found more quickly.

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