The Xbox team heard the suggestion that games on their platform might not take advantage of new-gen features to provide a new experience, and Xbox Games Marketing exec Aaron Greenberg tweeted “Generations of games that play on latest HW taking advantage of next-gen innovation offering more choice, value & variety than any console launch ever. All our Studios titles launch into Game Pass & you get those next-gen game upgrades for free.” That follows Phil Spencer’s December blog post that said: “Building on our compatibility promise, with Xbox Series X we’re also investing in consumer-friendly pathways to game ownership across generations. Leading the way with our first-party titles including Halo Infinite in 2020, we’re committed to ensuring that games from Xbox Game Studios support cross-generation entitlements and that your Achievements and game saves are shared across devices.”

Xbox believes in generations. Generations of games that play on latest HW taking advantage of next-gen innovation offering more choice, value & variety than any console launch ever. All our Studios titles launch into Game Pass & you get those next-gen game upgrades for free.

— Aaron Greenberg (@aarongreenberg) May 29, 2020

Highlighting its “generations” of compatible titles and Smart Delivery setup that will download the right version for your hardware in comparison to Sony’s still-murky plans for compatibility is especially timely. Eurogamer reports Sony has told PS4 developers that all games submitted after July 13th must be PS5 compatible, with all the same features available that players experience on PS4.

It’s pretty light for a console battle, although it could get more interesting once we see some real next-gen exclusive games, find out how much these boxes will cost, or even get the slightest glimpse at the PlayStation 5. The PS5 is pushing the DualSense controller as a major differentiating factor, and we’d hope it’s a bit more relevant to gameplay than the DualShock 4 touchpad has been. Of course, Xbox can’t really talk there — many of those Kinects that shipped with every Xbox One launch console never saw much use either.

Part of the mission loop involves trying to make it off the planet after completing the main objective. If you manage to get out of a mission alive, you’ll be able to buy new weapons, as well as upgrade your existing ones so that you can take on progressively tougher missions. 

Developer Systemic Reaction built the game using the same engine that powers Just Cause 4. Like Destiny 2, Second Extinction will be what’s called a living world game. Systemic Reaction plans to support the title with frequent content updates. Playing into that will be a feature called “The War Effort,” which the studio says it will detail at a later date.  

No word yet on an exact release date, but they’ll be a closed beta this summer on Steam. When it does become available on Xbox Series X, it will support Microsoft’s Smart Delivery tech, allowing you to buy it once and play it on both Xbox Series X and Xbox One. 

The Xbox Series X will feature an NVMe SSD, as we previously heard, to dramatically speed up load times. And on the graphics front, Microsoft also reiterated that the Series X will feature hardware-accelerated DirectX Raytracing for “true-to-life lighting, accurate reflections and realistic acoustics in real time.” The PlayStation 5 will also have its own spin on raytracing, and since it’s also running an upcoming RDNA GPU, it’ll likely be very similar to Microsoft’s approach. It’ll also be interesting to see how the consoles manage raytracing without hurting performance — something that’s been an issue with NVIDIA’s GPUs.

Microsoft also unveiled a new technology called “Smart Delivery,” which will allow you to buy a game once and play the best version possible on the Series X or Xbox One. It may not sound very exciting, but it’s going to be a useful feature for gamers as they transition to the new console. You could build up a library of Series X games with your current Xbox One, and it could conceivably let you keep playing the same title across multiple Xbox consoles in your home. The company says Smart Delivery will be standard for its exclusive Xbox Game Studio titles, like Halo Infinite, and it’ll be available for third-party developers to implement.

Beyond those tidbits, Microsoft fleshed out a few more details on previously announced Xbox Series X features. A new “quick resume” capability will let you instantly jump back into multiple titles from where you left off. That’s something you could do with a single game on the Xbox One, but it didn’t always work reliably and required using the “Instant On” power mode, which left the console in standby instead of completely powering it off.

Additionally, Microsoft is implementing “Dynamic Latency Input” (DLI) in the Xbox wirelss controller to reduce the delay between the buttons you’re pressing and what appears on the screen. Microsoft claims the new tech should synchronize input “immediately” for more responsive gameplay. I wouldn’t expect DLI to be something regular gamers notice, but it could be helpful for esports players and anyone who demands the lowest latency possible.