Home windows Xbox app replace now pulls in your Steam and different PC video games

Microsoft and Asus are bringing forth the brand new Asus ROG Xbox Ally handheld subsequent month, and it’s type of an enormous deal. Arguably essentially the most noteworthy Xbox gadget to emerge in over a decade, it’s additionally arguably not an Xbox… because it’s working full Home windows 11. However to create an omnibus of all of your put in video games in a single UI, Microsoft is updating its Xbox app with an built-in view.

This has been in testing for some time, centralizing a single launch space for video games from the Microsoft Retailer, Xbox Recreation Cross, Steam, Activision-Blizzard’s Battle.web, and GOG. Video games are mechanically added to the Xbox app’s “My Library” space upon set up. Fortnite on the Epic Video games Retailer additionally makes an look on the Xbox Wire story (noticed by The Verge).

The replace is reside on my PC, and certainly, I’m seeing a bunch of video games on my system in it. Simply so many video games. Getting information from Steam appears to be slightly hit or miss—a number of of them are displaying a lacking emblem or a generic one, just like the Unity emblem for a demo.

Microsoft isn’t the primary firm to attempt uniting the disparate interfaces for getting, putting in, and taking part in video games on Home windows. However because the gatekeeper of the platform with new {hardware} to push, it might need one of the best likelihood of really pulling it off. Simply in time, too. The clunkiness of Home windows 11 in handheld kind issue is well-known, and the assorted makes an attempt to get round it by corporations like Asus and Lenovo have left quite a bit to be desired.

As we speak’s Xbox app replace additionally exhibits third-party apps in a simplified, touch-friendly launcher for handheld PCs. Based on the Xbox Wire put up, an extra replace “coming later in September” will present you your cloud taking part in historical past throughout Home windows units—once more, similar to Steam already does. The extra function that’s extra helpful is the flexibility to “Leap again in” from the house web page, presumably built-in with some cloud-synced save recordsdata and different settings.