Home windows Recreation Bar will get design tweaks for higher handheld gaming

Home windows is the de facto dwelling of PC gaming, but it surely’s a quite awkward match for a slew of latest Steam Deck-inspired handhelds. That’s why the prospect of third-party handhelds working SteamOS is so tantalizing. However it appears like Microsoft is able to defend its place, with new tweaks to the Recreation Bar that make it simpler to make use of on mentioned handhelds.

That’s the subtext, if not the direct message, within the newest official Xbox Wire weblog put up. The Recreation Bar app—an overlay meant to boost your sport expertise and ship some on-the-fly statistical information—has a brand new look now. It’s a little bit extra muted and simpler on the eyes, with quicker entry to instruments just like the Seize and Efficiency widgets. You can even navigate the Widget Retailer to obtain new instruments way more simply with a controller, whether or not it’s separate or a part of your machine.

The objective right here is “guaranteeing a smoother expertise when utilizing Compact Mode on PCs and Home windows Handhelds.” (Be aware the direct shout-out and brand-approved capitalization.) After I tried out Compact Mode on my desktop, it gave me particular Steam Massive Image mode vibes, full with a a lot larger font and interface. It appears goofy on a 32-inch monitor, but it surely’s simple to see how it could work higher on a little bit 7-inch display screen.

In different Xbox-slash-PC gaming information, Microsoft has introduced new assist for extra video games you’ll be able to stream by way of Recreation Go in case you personal a duplicate, notably highlighted by the brand new Murderer’s Creed Shadows. The most recent blockbuster in Ubisoft’s long-running sequence isn’t on Recreation Go—not less than not but—however in case you purchase the sport, you need to use Recreation Go to stream it from the cloud. A pleasant perk. There at the moment are over 50 titles with this distinction, and extra coming quickly.

Microsoft can be leveraging its place as a mega-publisher to attempt to persuade free-to-play avid gamers that Recreation Go is well worth the improve. In the event you subscribe, you’ll get further goodies in already-free video games like League of Legends, Overwatch 2, and Name of Responsibility: Warzone.