Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass platform just got a huge boost with the addition of 20 new Bethesda Softworks titles starting today, and now a quarter of those games will be getting performance boosts on the next-gen Xbox consoles in an upcoming update. The performance gains are in frame rate thanks to an appropriately named new feature Microsoft revealed last month called FPS Boost, which can roughly double frame rates of older games using new Xbox hardware without requiring developers do any manual work.
The games that will see performance boosts with frame rate jumps up to 60 frames per second include Arkane Studios’ Dishonored: Definitive Edition and Prey and Bethesda Game Studios’ The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76.
The announcement was made during a YouTube live stream on Friday between Xbox Live programming director Larry Hryb (aka “Major Nelson”) and comms chief Jeff Rubenstein, in which Rubenstein discussed the benefits the new Xbox Series X/S can bring to older Bethesda titles. The games, while available now, don’t yet have the FPS Boost mode enabled currently, but Microsoft intends to add it as an optional toggle some time soon.
Microsoft said in its announcement yesterday that “a handful of these games will also benefit from FPS Boost on Xbox Series X / S,” though it did not specify which at the time. it also said 16 of the 20 Bethesda games coming to Xbox Game Pass would be available across PC and xCloud in addition to Xbox consoles. You can find a list of which platforms which games are available on here.
