Xbox engineering leads Eden Marie made the announcement on Twitter, confirming that the new functionality was being rolled out to members of the Xbox Insider program. According to Marie’s tweet, the functionality is available on the Xbox One, in addition to the next-gen Series X and Series S devices.
For updates or new games in the download queue, the new Suspend feature will allow users to temporarily pause their game.
Slowing Down Xbox 360 Downloads and How to Stop It
Download rates for games are typically capped in the background on Xbox One and Series X/S consoles while they are being used for online play to prevent lag in multiplayer games. While logical, this may cause annoyance for players who are waiting for a background download to complete.
To prevent lag in online multiplayer, Xbox consoles reduce download speeds in the background while participants are actively playing a game.
In the past, if a player wanted to speed up a download, they would have to exit the game entirely. As a result of this brand-new function, people will no longer have to worry about it.
How this will affect games that don’t have Quick Resume support for Xbox One Series X and Series S or titles that need a constant internet connection to play when resumed from a suspended state, is unclear.
Marie adds that the game will be updated with “new banners” that will lead players to “more useful categories” on the Full Library menu. This tweet appears to display updated ‘Recently Added’ and ‘Leaving Soon’ banners in the Game Pass area of the library, making it simpler for users to identify which titles are being added and removed from the subscription service.
Updates to the Xbox Accessories app in advance of the release of the Xbox wireless headset, the return of Achievements, and other improvements were recently released as part of the major March update for all Xbox users.