When you turn on your Xbox Series X for the first time and look at the screen, it is difficult to tell the difference with its predecessor. Completed a very simple installation process, everything you already had is in its place and -more or less- just as you left it. When you do the same step with PS5 everything looks new. New interface, new distribution, new store, those huge game cards … However, passing the content of PS4 has small print . And that even shows in games released more than half a year later.
That Microsoft began its own path to convergence in early 2016 has allowed it to take a step back and get a panoramic view of how to start putting together a plan that would bring its own Xbox brand (and its own game catalog) to just about anywhere system with access to a web browser. The jump from Game Pass to televisions, no longer with hardware involved, is the best example of how much has been achieved in this regard.
And if it is out of doubt that the Xbox Game Pass itself, the subscription that gives access to a brutal selection of video games, is the workhorse of the Xbox brand itself, Microsoft’s secret weapon – and the reason why it cannot replicate the value of your gaming service – it has its own name: Smart Delivery.
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Smart Delivery: all versions of the same game, zero complications
The premise of Smart Delivery is terrifyingly simple to understand. It doesn’t matter where you buy or play an Xbox Game Studios title or anyone who wants to make use of that technology: you will receive the best version of the game on your PC, device or console, regardless of its generation, and without having to perform any extra step. And this seems simple, but it is not.
Before the arrival of Smart Delivery, Microsoft itself has developed many previous steps in the right direction. Games purchased digitally with Play Anywhere include Xbox and PC copies at no additional cost, and cloud save allows you to start a game on PC and console and continue our progress where we left off. We are talking about great games of the caliber of Dragon Quest XI, Resident Evil 7 or Cuphead. And the Smart Delivery is much more than that .
Starting from the simple, adapting well a blockbuster of consoles to PC is a process that requires a very special treatment . Not only in the face of the possible failures and collateral effects of moving the software from a relatively closed system in software and with limited components to another that, until the arrival of the game in the cloud, to properly enjoy each game, the player is required to have certain requirements minima. We are talking about elements such as ultra-panoramic screens, the use of the mouse and keyboard or unlocking the frame rates.
Something that PlayStation Studios is fully aware of now that it has started publishing its games on PC.
In this way, developments such as Halo Infinite involve creating the same game and shared content that can be played and enjoyed on both Xbox Series X and PC, which implies dedicated features for desktop gamers and maximum use of the hardware. from Xbox. But, and this is the important thing, it will also have to show itself in those Xbox One models that had their own complications in 2013.
A statement of intent that, according to Xbox Game Studios, in addition to being present in all games developed under its seal, may be included in any title that you want to use.
With Smart Delivery, you only need to buy a game once to enjoy the best version available for the Xbox console you choose to use. We are committed to using Smart Delivery on all of our exclusive Xbox Game Studios titles, including Halo Infinite, and have made this technology available to all developer partners for them to take advantage of.
In this way, the way to approach the concept of Smart Delivery by Microsoft is to take off your hat: if you have the game in digital or you play it through Game Pass, you will automatically receive the version of the system in which you start your game . And if you have a game on disc, too: if you bought Gears 5 ” boxed ” and released and you have an Xbox Series X when you insert the disc, the best console version will be installed. And that, in some games, is synonymous with a free remastering.
To which we must add an extra detail in terms of digital copies: if we run them on a disk or an SSD card on our Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S, the best speed and performance will be achieved. Which is amazing, if we take into account that in specific titles the loading times have basically already disappeared.
Why Smart Delivery should be a lecturer in video games
With the above ahead, Smart Delivery is not the same as a free next-gen update on PS5, and it also brings out the colors of alternatives from EA, Activision, or the 2K Games system for NBA 2K21. Or the ugly of Control Ultimate Edition with the Early Adopters. In fact, it is exactly how generational leaps should be made from now on.
In my particular case, I have a problem with the improved versions of PS5 games. To be honest, a double problem:
- As a general rule, these are copies of different games and in most of them the progress is allowed to pass. Sometimes, as in Mortal Kombat, the process is simple and others, as in Guilty Gear -Sign- this implies having to upload our game to the cloud manually.
- But there are cases in which the subject is even more absurd, the Double Version system of FIFA 21 implies that I have to have both copies of the game installed on the console to be able to play with my PS4 friends. Either that, or I directly delete the PS5 version with its respective improvements.
Although many companies have opted to offer in their key games a free copy of the same game during the generational changeover, such as Final Fantasy VII Remake and in a future new generation Cyberpunk 2077, the truth is that the process as a whole pales before The Xbox solution: your version of the game depends on the system in which you start the game, and you will always have the best one installed , with all the content and at no additional cost.
Which leads us – irremediably – to question how Sony has approached the generational leap in its games and its expansion of PC. And, in that aspect, we have one of lime and another of sand.
- Since the launch of PS5, a selection of the best PS4 games have received new (free) updates that benefit from next-gen hardware, including God of War and The Last of Us 2. It would be unfair to say that they are copies for PS5, but it is appreciated.
- On the other hand, PlayStation Studios games have begun to reach PC, and although you have to pay for them again if you already have them (which is quite reasonable), you lose the incentive of being able to take your game and continue it. At least, in which titles are currently available.
It is not that Microsoft does not bet on adding updates to its games based on new hardware. In fact, it’s something it does even with its previous generation games, including Xbox 360 titles and the original Xbox. From Halo 3 to the mythical Knights of the Old Republic . And the result speaks for itself.
But it also gives them a performance boost through hardware through the FPS Boost, already benefiting more than fifty games. An improvement, by the way, at no cost to developers.
Because it is clear that the price increase of the new generation titles is due to specific production circumstances and their respective development and promotion costs. And the way Microsoft has circumvented that barrier for countless players through Smart Delivery is one of Xbox’s greatest assets.
Above all, when thanks to Xbox Cloud Gaming it is possible to position your best games and the Xbox brand, even when there are no consoles on the shelves . And who knows? Likewise, Microsoft’s cloud game opens the door for future games that are impossible to see on Xbox One for technical reasons to be played on it from the custom version of the Edge browser. That is, thanks to Smart Delivery.
With the alternatives on the table, Smart Delivery is positioned as the most beneficial and simple feature for the player during the generational changeover.
Not only because it opens the door to enjoy what we want where we want through the best way that the technology from which we start the game allows us, but because of its way of facilitating the transition between all its systems. From bringing PC and Xbox One gamers to Xbox Series X, and in the process, capturing new fans across browsers.
To which must be added his way of giving new life to a gaming legacy that spans four generations of consoles and 20 years of releases. And what’s better: it will continue to improve for the game systems to come.
Smart Delivery is not a minor feature or a logo to overlook when buying physical or digital: it is one of the great aces up Microsoft’s sleeve . A process that has not been short and not easy, but with which Xbox has achieved an unprecedented generational change, almost flawless and that, definitely, should be the chair.
