A new update to the Xbox Series X has made it so that the console will alert you if you’re running a game while downloading a new game at the same time. While this was already known via the early access program on the console, it’s a welcome addition to see.
Processing power on a console is divided between multiple different functions, and if you’re playing a game with multiplayer, that can also affect bandwidth that in turn affects the download speed of your new game. It could also help players to understand why, when they set one game to download and play another, that the download is taking so long.
It’s likely that while the feature has been there for some months, slowing the download speed of games while playing others, the actual notification to explain why the download might take so long has only recently been added, as many Xbox users knew of this function for months ahead of time.
The Xbox Series X alert will likely become much more prevalent in the future as more and more games specifically developed for the console start to come out. These games will likely require much more processing power to download, which might make slower download speeds much more noticeable.
There’s also the belief that the Xbox Series X’s Quick Resume function is partially responsible for downloads being slow as well. Since the game is still running, it takes up more of the console’s hard drive and processing power to install things, so the more games you have running on Quick Resume the more likely it is your downloads will slow.
Both this Xbox Series X alert and the ability to choose which parts of a game you want to download can both be very handy whenever you’re downloading games, so always be prepared to wait longer if you’re going to play a game while waiting for another to download.
