Xbox FPS Boost feature gets massive update, nearly 100 games now supported
Update: As rumored, Microsoft has announced a new wave of games with support for the FPS Boost feature on Xbox Series X and S, which allows the more powerful consoles to automatically raise framerates on backward compatible games. The massive drop brings the total of compatible titles up to 97.
There are some huge new additions as part of this list. Four older Assassin’s Creed games, Watch_Dogs, Yakuza 6, and Life Is Strange can now run at 60 FPS on either next-gen console. Gears of War 4 is on the list, seemingly confirming that its campaign will now support 4K at 60 FPS, something it couldn’t manage on Xbox One. Halo: Spartan Assault will now run at a whopping 120 FPS on both Series X and Series S.
That’s just the start of the list, however. You can check Major Nelson’s site for full details on the games and their supported framerates on each console. Also note that one some games, FPS Boost will be turned off by default on Series X, meaning you’ll need to manually enable the feature.
With Microsoft expanding the feature so massively, we’re excited to see if similarly large drops are on the way. Drastically increasing the performance of last-gen games could become a major way Microsoft differentiates itself from Sony as the two rivals strive to set themselves apart in this new console generation.
Original story: Just last week, the Xbox team announced that 13 EA games had been upgraded using the company’s FPS Boost options, a technology that can double or even triple the framerate on previous-generation Xbox titles. Now, it’s possible that we might be getting more FPS Boost titles next week—a lot more.
This rumor starts with The Verge’s Tom Warren, who said in a Discord conversation “more FPS Boost games coming v.soon.” Warren then posted the following as a fleet, a (stupid) new option on Twitter for posting tweets that go away after a set amount of time.
As you can see in the bottom-right corner, Warren has written “60fps/120fps 50+ 👀” which seems to not only hint at FPS Boost, but also the idea that we’re either getting 50+ new games added to the feature, or that FPS Boost will feature over 50 games at some point soon.
Now, one person tweeting something cryptic does not a solid rumor always make, but we then get this tweet from Twitter user Klobrille, who has been knowledgeable about other internal Xbox details in the past:
N4G editor in chief Ken McKown then tweeted this, which thrown a new wrench into things: the number 70 rather than 50. McKown’s information doesn’t seem to be coming from him—rather from Warren, and then that he “saw it a couple places.” That “70” number could be the current count of FPS Boost games plus the new stuff, or maybe the upcoming list will be even bigger than some are expecting.
For now, obviously, all of this is just talk going on out there on the internet, and means nothing until we get details that are a little more concrete. Still, it’s nice to hope for such a big surprise next week, isn’t it?
Mollie got her start in games media via the crazy world of gaming fanzines, and now works at EGM with the goal of covering all of the weird Japanese and niche releases that nobody else on staff cares about. She’s active in the gaming community on a personal level, and an outspoken voice on topics such as equality in gaming, consumer rights, and good UI. Check her out on Twitter and Mastodon.
