Without accounting for the minor differences, the PS5 and Xbox Series X bring with them equal amounts of improvement in graphical and processing power. When compared to the current-gen systems, PS5 and Xbox Series X are huge improvements in rendering, loading speeds, and the reduction in noise as well. PS5 and Xbox Series X are both fully capable of outputting 4K resolution and/or 60 FPS for next-gen and backwards compatible games as well. Even if this generation doesn't bring with it a drastic leap in graphical fidelity, game performance is going to be impressive on both systems.
However, despite both consoles having relatively similar graphical output and capability, there is one particular feature on the Xbox Series X/S that surprisingly the PS5 doesn't have. Microsoft has been keen on marketing its trademark "Quick Resume" capability, giving players the option to swap between multiple different games on the fly. Quick resume games are left "running" in the background while players enjoy the primary game on screen. As a byproduct of the SSD technology in next-gen consoles, quick resume is a neat and surprisingly useful feature for Xbox Series X/S that the PS5 just doesn't have, despite sharing similar quick loading capabilities.
The Convenience of Quick Resume on Xbox Series X/S
For those unaware, the "quick resume" feature on the Xbox Series X (and Xbox Series S) gives players the ability to jump between up-to-five different games without closing them entirely. These games "run" in the background when another title is being played on screen, though it's not actually fully running in the background. Quick resume is essentially a save state that basically halts any processes from the game until it's picked up and played again. Effectively, it prevents the necessity to close a game entirely before swapping to a different installed game, which means players can leave their favorite five games up per session.
This is different from booting up the game entirely, which would require players going through the start screen and re-loading games entirely. For titles with high storage requirements like Red Dead Redemption 2, even on the Xbox Series X's high speed SSD, that's another minute of loading that's avoided with quick resume. Some games have been reportedly not supporting quick resume and booting players back to the start screen, but Microsoft has stated they're working "on a platform level" to fix the issue, according to GameSpot. Otherwise, practically every game playable on an Xbox Series X/S can be placed in a save state using quick resume.
PS5 Currently Has No Quick Resume Functionality
Unfortunately for PlayStation fans, there is no such compatibility coming to the PS5, at least for now. That may come as a shock for the PS5, considering the hardware has a ton of optimizations and custom hardware dedicated to the system's hyper-fast SSD storage. Regardless of how fast the PS5 can boot up new games in an instant, it's not quite the same as quick resume. The PlayStation 5's UI showcase did demonstrate Destruction AllStars booting up in a matter of seconds, but that wasn't after the PS5 closed out of Sackboy: A Big Adventure entirely.
That doesn't necessarily mean Sony can't implement a similar functionality in future firmware updates, but it is interesting that it's not a feature available at launch. Considering how much investment went into the custom SSD and I/O controller, one would think bells and whistles like quick resume would be a feature for the console. Obviously, at the end of the day, it's all about booting and loading games in an instant. PS5 loading times are still massively impressive, with read/write speeds at over 100x faster than PS4. Quick resume doesn't inherently need to be on the PS5, but it definitely seems like it would be a sure-fire feature to have when so much effort was put into the system's quick-loading capabilities.
A Genuinely Surprising Omission with PS5
The big draw with quick resume is a strange one, but the feature doesn't seem that important until it's available to players. Once someone has access to quick resume, and they happen to have a shortlist of games always on rotation, quick resume was designed exactly for that type of player. Working on a singleplayer RPG playthrough and someone invites them to play Call of Duty for an hour? They can use quick resume, jump in to Black Ops Cold War with a friend, then return to their previous session in a matter of seconds. That's just one of many examples where quick resume all of a sudden becomes a must-have console feature.
Perhaps the PS5 doesn't have this feature because the SSD truly is fast enough that a quick resume feature isn't needed, but it's really not that simple. Quick resume's usage of save states remembers exactly where players are in another game, and brings them right back there. It's not always just bringing players immediately back to a start screen, it's much more convenient than that. It's genuinely surprising that a console, which invested so much into making loading speeds faster with custom hardware that surpasses standard SSD read/write speeds, doesn't even have a quick resume feature like Xbox.
The PS5 launches on November 13, 2020.
