Today Microsoft announced it’s beta-testing a bunch of new features for its Game Bar overlay on Windows 10, including video capture/sharing, cross-platform chat with Xbox players, and new volume and performance controls.
With these new features Windows 10 itself now seems capable of efficiently handling more of the play-adjacent activities (like voice chatting with friends or clipping exciting moments) that many PC game players offload to third-party tools like Discord or Nvidia’s ShadowPlay.
The bit about cross-platform communication is especially notable, since it ties PC game players more deeply into the Xbox Live community.
That community is now set to stretch across not just across Windows and Xbox consoles but also iOS and Android, and it all seems to be roughly in line with the promise Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made in 2015 that games are key to Microsoft’s “broader vision for Windows.”
“We will pursue our gaming ambition as part of this broader vision for Windows and increase its appeal to consumers,” Nadella wrote at the time. “We will bring Xbox Live and our first-party gaming efforts across PC, console, mobile and new categories like HoloLens into one integrated play.”