Microsoft reveals 22 Xbox Series X games optimized for the console

Earlier in May this year, we had reported about 13 gameplay trailers that Microsoft had revealed to be ‘Optimized for Xbox Series X’. These games would also come with a badge that stated this. All we knew then was that these games would come with certain improvements that would make them work better on the new consoles, but now we have more details.

Microsoft has explained what these optimizations are and have also revealed a tentative list of 22 games that are being bumped-up for the badge.

‘Optimized for XBox Series X’ will include two types of games - native Xbox Series X games like Halo Inifinite and existing games that have been fully rebuilt, including some Xbox One titles, like Gears 5.

The badge ‘Optimized for XBox Series X’ is going to be put on games to indicate that these games will be able to take advantage of the Xbox Series X hardware better than other games. While how well they optimise the software will vary, Microsoft has said that these optimisations include almost zero load times via Xbox Velocity Architecture, better visuals, DirectX raytracing and higher framerates.

Technical director Mike Rayer explained that with the Xbox Series X they have reduced load-times by 4x without any code changes and thanks to the new DirectStorage APIs and new hardware decompression they have improved I/O performance and reduced CPU overhead - both these factors contribute to faster load-times. You can check out the announcement for more details.

Microsoft also released a list of 22 games confirmed to get the ‘Optimized for XBox Series X’ badge. They will be adding more games to the list over time, but for now here’s what you have -

This list will also go on to include almost all first-party Xbox Series X titles that will be announced during the July livestream.