Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles have been on sale for a few months now but it seems that there are still some new platform updates to look forward to if a recent interview with Xbox’s director of program management, Jason Ronald, is anything to go by.
Speaking with Larry Hryb, Major Nelson, on the official Xbox podcast about his team’s plans for the future, Ronald said that when it comes to the Xbox platform, “We’ve got a lot of really exciting things that are coming down the pipeline over the coming months and over the coming years”, adding that “At launch, we say it all the time internally, this is really just the beginning.”
Although the exact nature of these “exciting things” wasn’t revealed, Ronald did say that he and his team are “partnering really closely with key game developers from all across the industry to really take full advantage of all the next-gen capabilities that we put in the Xbox Series X and Series S.
“We really are excited as we get further into the year and closer to this holiday to start sharing more of the details about what’s in development, and how you can really take advantage of these next-gen platforms.”
It seems that some of these updates will at least be revealed in the near future as Hryb said that Ronald would be back on the podcast “sooner rather than later” and that there would be some “enhancement news coming soon”.
Ronald has previously confirmed on his Twitter that players would be hearing more about previously announced backwards compatibility enhancements like improved frame rates in 2021, so it’s possible that some of this news that’s coming soon could be related to that, though we can’t know for sure.
Fan feedback
As well as long-term plans for the future, in the interview Ronald touched on some of the more immediate quality of life improvements that his team is working on now that users have the consoles in their hands and are providing feedback.
He mentioned a focus, for example, on getting the “quick resume experience on all the titles that people are playing” after it was disabled on some titles at launch. Ronald also mentioned responding to reports of controller disconnects and making improvements to broadcasting and sharing, as well as upcoming updates for the Xbox mobile app to bring in missing features like Achievements.
Of course, getting your hands on an Xbox Series X at the moment isn’t the easiest thing in the world. After a successful launch, stock has been hard to come by and Microsoft has warned that stock could be constrained for a little while longer. At TechRadar we’re keeping an eye on where you can get your hands on the console so keep checking back if you’re still on the hunt.
Via VGC
