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Microsoft addressed its gaming future at the Game Developers Conference today, the company offering early teases of the next-generation Xbox console – codenamed Project Helix – and its plans in the PC arena.
Starting next month in select markets, the company revealed it plans to bring ‘Xbox mode’, its full-screen launcher seen on the Xbox ROG Ally, to every Windows 11 PC – be they laptops, desktops or tablets.
Microsoft sees this as a controller-friendly way for gamers to interface with a Windows 11 PC; essentially, it’s an overlay/launcher that can be toggled on/off in Windows without a reboot required.
As Channel News indicates, it doesn’t appear to be something that turns off RAM-using Windows 11 resources as many were hoping and quips that it’s “a ‘seamless’ transition, much like how a brick seamlessly transitions into a window.”
Talk also turned to Project Helix which will send out alpha versions to developers in 2027. The device will include a next-gen version of AMD’s FSR upscaling technology called ‘FSR Diamond’ which is ‘natively optimized for Project Helix’.
The device will also have a “custom AMD chip with “an order of magnitude increase in raytracing performance” up to and including path tracing.
After being quiet in recent years, the company’s Game Preservation program is getting a boost for the 25th anniversary of the brand with plans to “re-release an unspecified number of older Xbox titles” and “new ways to play some of the most iconic games from our past” which suggests potential PC releases for those titles.
Source: The Verge
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