At E3 Microsoft announced some game changer (pun intended) features coming to the Xbox One including game streaming Xbox One games to Windows 10 PCs. Today Xbox’s Major Nelson outlined additional Windows 10 Xbox features that are arriving in July.
To gain access to these features you will need to be running both Windows 10 preview Build 10158 as well as the Xbox on Windows 10 app. Here is the feature list from Major Nelson:
- My Games – As you install games from the Windows Store, they will appear in your My Games list. Additionally, you can manually add games to your collection by selecting My games > Add a game from your PC. Also, there is now a Featured games section on the home screen, below your Recently played list.
- Game hubs – You can now launch a local PC game from its game hub, view details about the game in the Windows Store, and find and follow People to Watch for a given game. Additionally, for Xbox One games, you can now choose Play from console to initiate a game streaming session from a game hub page.
- Share with your friends – You can share your achievements to your Activity feed and Showcase just like you do on Xbox One. You can also share your Xbox One Game clips or Screenshots listed under Game DVR > Shared to your Activity Feed and Showcase.
- Xbox avatars – We renamed the Avatars app on Windows 10 to Xbox Avatars and the layout and iconography have been updated to final designs. In this month’s preview, there is a “Take a photo” feature so you can pose your avatar and snap a photo.
- Xbox account – In preview, you can sign in to Xbox on Windows 10 with any account, and create a new Xbox account if you do not already have one.
The most notable features here may be the Game hubs changes. Being able to launch local games within game hub as well as initiate streaming from the console make a native feeling gaming experience whether the game is coming from a PC or a console.
These changes help improve the streaming to Windows 10 experience which is one of the most ground breaking changes related to Xbox One this year. The Xbox team listens closely to feedback and works hard to continue to improve the Xbox One even though it’s been out for a couple of years.
