Earlier today we got word that thanks to a new technique called FPS Boost the talented backwards compatibility team at Xbox added another feather in the already feather-stacked Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S cap -- increased performance at the system level. We sat down with Jason Ronald, Director of Program Management for Xbox Series X|S to talk about it -- and more.

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New hardware means more powerful CPUs, GPUs, and storage to leverage -- a fact that has already seen many titles load faster, run at higher resolutions, and perform better simply by firing them up on an Xbox Series X or S.

“We really designed the Series X to run all games at 4K, at 60 frames-per-second,” Jason explains. “With the Xbox One generation, some titles were able to hit 30 frames-per-second and some 60. We really believe best in class gaming experiences lean into things like higher frame-rates, buttery-smooth input... that was a design target as we designed the system.

“When we were designing the Series X and the Series S this commitment to compatibility influenced the design of the silicon, the hardware, and it has impacted the design of the operating system too.”

“When it came to backwards compatibility as we started getting these games up, we realised that with all this extra processing power that we have with the Xbox Series X and the Series S, games were in many cases “waiting”,” Jason continues. “The hardware would process a frame in dramatically less time than before. That was a fascinating insight – so we got to thinking, what would happen if we actually got the title to render more quickly?”

Our Full Interview with Team Xbox as We Chat About Backwards Compatibility (and Even the Possibility of Look at Different Hardware like the Sega Dreamcast.