no - a save state is made when you start a new one or shutdown (or something analogous)
if you unplug the machine mid game you are boned (in all likelihood)
I assumed Quick Resume was RAM based with temporary storage. Makes sense that it would only work for games you exit to place them in that state to start with.
Essentially yes. Before thiss console generation, the current game state would be fully stored on RAM. So textures, models, sound, your position in a level etc. RAM is way faster than a HDD, so computers load data they need to access to RAM before actually accessing it. However, RAM loses all its data when it is no longer powered.
The new console generation's SSDs bridge the speed gap between HDD and RAM by a lot. So Quick Resume jut stores the data on ram to the SSD whenever the application is paused. Since SSDs do retain memory when power is gone, this makes resuming after a powered down state possible.
Ah brilliant thanks for the detail. I knew RAM was temporary so it's interesting to hear how the SSD can take some of that storage now.