Travelling for the holidays? It’s easier than ever to take Xbox gaming along with you

3 min. read

Published on December 7, 2016

published on December 7, 2016

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The holiday season is usually a great period to take advantage of interesting discounts on electronics, catch up with the latest movies, TV shows and games, and of course spend time with your family and close ones. But for the video games fans among our readers, the Xbox team shared this week a few tips to help you make the best use of your Xbox One or Windows 10 PCs during the holidays, highlighting the fact that the Xbox ecosystem has become nearly ubiquitous this year.

First of all, if you don’t use the Xbox app a lot on your Windows 10 PC, you really should: since Microsoft shipped the Windows 10 Anniversary Update in August, the Xbox app has received several new features and now integrates with popular Win32 (non-Windows Store) games. Here are some examples of what you can do with this app on your Windows 10 PC:

Chat with your friends on Xbox Live through text and voice and create party chats to stay connected with your friends when playing a multiplayer game.
Use the Game Bar (press the Windows key + G) to capture screenshots and videos of your gaming moments, edit them with the Xbox app and share them on Xbox Live
Use the new Clubs and Looking for Groups features to create your own gaming community or easily find people to play with.
Use Xbox Live’s Game Hubs to get the latest news about your favorite games and see what other gamers are sharing.
If you own an Xbox One, you can use the Windows 10 Xbox app to stream your Xbox One games to any Windows 10 PC on your home network.

Xbox App on Windows 10 — The Xbox app on Windows 10.

If you’re interested in Microsoft’s Xbox Play Anywhere initiative, then the Windows 10 Xbox app will even more useful to you. As a reminder, buying a digital copy of an Xbox Play Anywhere title will allow you to play the game on both your Xbox One and Windows 10 PC at no additional cost, with shared progress and achievements.

You can start playing on your Xbox One and pick up where you left off on your PC, and you can also use the Windows 10 Xbox app to keep track of your achievements, create party chats for cross-platform multiplayer games such as Gears of War 4 and Forza Horizon 3 and more.

Lastly, if you’re traveling and lot and need a powerful laptop to play your favorites games anywhere, Microsoft has you covered. For a limited time, the US Microsoft Store is offering great discounts on two gaming laptops from Asus and Alienware:

Save $500 on the ASUS ROG G752VL-UH71T Signature Edition ($1,299)
Save $700 on the Alienware 15 Touch Signature Edition ($1,799), which also includes an Intel Gaming Bundle promotion ($200 value) including the following nine free games: Ashes of the Singularity, Astroblast! Space Squad, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, SCRABBLE, RISK, World of Tanks, World of Warcraft, World of Warships, MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 2017, PCmover Express and Wheel of Fortune.

Do you plan to play a lot of games during the holidays, and if so what will be your favorite gaming device? Let us know some details about your holiday gaming plans in the comments below.

Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time). For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web. Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they're looking for.