Microsoft's Xbox Mode Is Now Available For All Windows 11 PCs

Microsoft is rolling out Xbox mode to all Windows 11 PCs, bringing a full-screen Xbox PC app interface similar to Steam's Big Picture Mode. "Some players in select markets will be able to download the Xbox mode experience today, with availability expanding to more players in those markets over the next several weeks," says the Xbox team. The Verge reports: Xbox mode aims to try and bridge the gap between Xbox consoles and Windows, but its original debut felt like a beta on the Xbox Ally devices. "Since first introducing Xbox mode, formerly known as 'full screen experience,' on Windows handhelds, we've been listening closely to player feedback and continuing to evolve the experience across devices," says the Xbox team. "Those learnings directly shaped Xbox mode on Windows 11 PCs."

Microsoft is also rolling out improvements to the Xbox Ally X handheld today, including a preview of its Auto SR upscaling technology. Xbox console owners are also getting a new dashboard update today, with the ability to disable Quick Resume on individual games and a feature to add custom colors to the dashboard.

No thanks

[Snotnose]

I don't own an X Box, nor do I game on my laptop. Please don't force this on me.

Make it make sense

[Gavino]

I thought the idea of the Xbox was that game devs knew exactly what platform and hardware specs they were coding for. If any Win11 PC can run xbox games now, then this is 100% broken. This seems like a way for Microsoft to kill off Xbox, without saying they killed Xbox. If I was a game dev, I'd be avoiding anything "Xbox" like the plague.

Re:

[Stormwatch]

It can't, that's just "synergy", the idea that one powerful brand can boost another. In reality it just causes confusion and incorrect assumptions.

Re:

[ArchieBunker]

The Xbox is already dead. This is Microsoft wanting to keep that subscriber revenue stream going.

Re:

[Narcocide]

You're probably right and one day the Xbox gaming division will just be another company that makes games for Nintendo, like Sega. From the beginning, Xbox as a product always seemed pretty redundant to Microsoft's whole business plan, and I always thought it was just a late excuse concocted to pretend that Windows's popularity wasn't simply due to the video games; recall that originally their marketing strategy to sink Commodore was to gaslight them as being inferior for business use because they were all a

From Alex in Clockwork Orange:

[crunchy_one]

What you got back home, little sister, to play your fuzzy warbles on? I bet you got little save pitiful, portable picnic players.

Now that the pathetic plastic laptop your mom bought you at Costco can play XBox games, everything is just ducky, bucky.

another attempt

[Archfeld]

This is just another sad attempt at a walled garden. I play games...lots of games in a wide variety of genres. I love GOG and ITCH. I am on steam and another half dozen platforms but I rarely buy anyhting I cant download for offline cosumption. In a setup like this, you own nothing, and even mod'ing is totaly controlled by an entity well known for SUCKING.

the *ZDoom engines and modding community have given me far more game hours than ANY published game. 40oz. and the DBP folks deserve credit.

XBox on PC is a great idea if done at OS level

[Somervillain]

I bought an Ally and was fortunately able to return it because it couldn't play basic games. However, I don't really enjoy using Windows. I'd rather use Linux or mac....but I like games....how about an OS that skips all the Windows bullshit and just focuses on launching games? I am sure there are many improvements and optimizations that could be made to Windows if the developers knew you were only going to play video games on it and not try to run CAD, office, art, server, or productivity software on it.

My XBox is an amazing machine...perfectly reliable, fast, pleasant to use...on some surprisingly cheap hardware. If I had 3x the power with faster CPU and GPU, I would imagine it wouldn't be THAT hard to deliver the same experience, just faster. I don't think it's restricting the hardware that makes it so great.

So yeah, if I were supreme dictator at Microsoft, I'd create a whole new XBox PC program...certification for hardware and opening up the XBox OS so that it could be run on certified PC hardware to allow hobbyists to spend their paychecks getting a mega-powered XBox....also open it to the Steam store....make a gamer's dream and keep people from leaving you for Mac/PlayStation.

No win11. Uh uh,

[maynard]

I just installed Fedora 44 on my old Win10 laptop. Because Microsoft made sure this perfectly good laptop with 16gb RAM could not run Win11. And Affinity Suite runs great on wine now. And no obnoxious telemetry tracking. Oh yeah, for games: steam and lutris too.

Yeah yeah yeah, linux linux linux

still, Microsoft is in self-destruct mode.