Some may have questioned whether the Quick Resume feature on the Xbox Series X is all it's cracked up to be. Alanah Pearce, a video game personality and voice actress who has played as NPCs in Gears 5 and who is currently involved in the production of Cyberpunk 2077, decided to test the feature on her own Xbox console.
"Definitely got a lot of comments from people saying they don't understand what the point of the Quick Resume feature is," Pearce says. Apparently, the comments in question were focused on whether being able to pause and switch between games freely would even be utilized by the average gamer. Pierce admitted she uses Xbox Quick Resume more frequently than the average gamer might, then went on to explain, "The feature is much broader than that."
After a quick disclaimer that her particular Xbox Series X is a preview unit, meaning it is not 100% indicative of what the console will be like when the Series X hits retail shelves, Pearce went on with the demonstration.
The Xbox Series X she held up was indeed unplugged, and she said it had been disconnected from power and other cables for at least 24 hours straight. After plugging it in, she attempted to turn it on using the controller, which apparently was not synced to the console. When she turned on the device manually, the screen resumed at the Xbox menu with no apparent startup screen. She was then able to get into Ori and the Will of the Wisps, which had been paused, with no delay or difficulty.
At present, the Xbox Series X Quick Resume feature supports holding a minimum of 3 games in suspension, depending on the amount of space they take up in memory. Most computers, including consoles, would lose data stored in their Random Access Memory (RAM) if it lost power. Quick Resume apparently stores game information in a way that is either completely unaffected by loss of power (unlikely), or the device is able to successfully capture the state of a game and store it in a durable format before the device shuts down.
The main takeaway is that games held in Quick Resume do not seem to be affected by a loss of power, at least not if the Xbox is shut down properly. This finding does not give any indication of whether sudden loss of power, such as from a power outage, would affect the Quick Resume feature. It does, however, mean that it is possible to suspend games in Quick Resume, turn off and unplug the console, and move it to a completely new place without losing game progress.