Last month, ASUS and Xbox released their collaborative handheld device, the ROG Xbox Ally and its more powerful variant, the ROG Xbox Ally X. It was the arrival of Xbox's Full Screen Experience (Xbox FSE) and our first taste, according to Xbox president Sarah Bond, of what the company will do with its future consoles.
In the time since launch, ROG Xbox Ally users have seen plenty of updates come from ASUS as it supports and fixes software issues with the device as they appear, but we've yet to have a new feature added or see a major update from Xbox - until today, as Microsoft announced in an Xbox Wire post that the latest update adds Default Game Profiles.
The new feature is meant to make your experience playing on the ROG Xbox Ally/Ally X as seamless as possible and limit the amount of time you'd have to spend in a game's settings, adjusting and tweaking the graphical options so you can get it running at a solid frame rate and visual fidelity.
Essentially, Xbox has, across 40 titles to start, created ROG Xbox Ally/Ally X-optimized settings. These Default Game Profiles will automatically balance frame rate and power consumption for supported titles creating "smoother, more enjoyable gameplay and extended battery life, without requiring manual adjustments."
Hollow Knight Silksong, for example, is a game that you can now get a full extra hour of playtime out of, due to how well the power consumption is optimized with its Default Game Profile, according to Xbox, while still playing at a full 120 FPS.
Thankfully, you're not locked into using a supported game's default profile; you can still choose to adjust the settings manually to your preference. They'll also only turn on automatically when you're playing the ROG Xbox Ally on its battery, and not when it's plugged in. "When you launch a supported game, the system automatically applies a tailored game profile, which sets recommended power (TDP) and a FPS limit specific to the game," the Xbox Wire post reads.
Though the post is clear that 40 titles are supported off the jump, it doesn't include a full list of the supported titles, only highlighting 16, including:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
- Call of Duty: Warzone
- DOOM Eternal
- DOOM: The Dark Ages
- Fortnite
- Forza Horizon 5
- Gears 5
- Gears of War: Reloaded
- Gears Tactics
- Halo: The Master Chief Collection
- Hollow Knight Silksong
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
- Minecraft
- Sea of Thieves
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4
Currently, games that are cleared to work well on the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X will include a "Handheld Optimized" notice on that game's store page, though there doesn't appear to be a tag for games included in the list of games that support the new 'Default Game Profile' feature. The Outer Worlds 2, for example, is a game I booted up on my ROG Xbox Ally X that I could see does support the new Default Game Profile feature and is not listed here.
Perhaps a tag will be added later, but for now, if you want to check if a game you're playing supports this new feature, you'll only be able to find out once you've launched it, and can see the option for the Default Game Profile in the Armoury Crate Command Center.
Today's update also includes:
- Improved Gamepad response after login
- Quicker Library loading, especially for players with large game libraries
- Improved Cloud Gaming page performance, loading more quickly and more responsive
- New Game Gallery filter by Performance Fit, helping you see how well games will run on your device
- Bug fixes and performance enhancements for improved stability and responsiveness
As for what's to come in the future for ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X users, next week we'll get a Game Save Sync Indicator, a much-needed feature that arguably should have been included at launch, but at least it's here now. "With clear status updates, you’ll know exactly when your progress has synced to the cloud, whether you’re wrapping up on your PC or powering down your handheld. No more guessing or lost progress."
For more on the ROG Xbox Ally devices, you can check out my interview with two ASUS executives, Whitson Gordon, head of content for ROG and senior manager of marketing content, and Sascha Krohn, global director of technical marketing, talking all about the device. You can also check out my review of the ROG Xbox Ally X.
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