Xbox’s Mike Ybarra has detailed what’s to come in the Creators Update set to release for Xbox One and Windows 10 soon. As the company focuses on feedback from fans as well as ideas from the engineering teams, Microsoft is bringing new features to Xbox One and Windows 10 in order to enhance players’ gaming experiences. To begin 2017, the team at Xbox is introducing some of these features starting next week, with more updates to come in the following months.
As Ybarra puts it, the four key themes these updates focus on are Streaming, Performance, People, and Competition. It will soon be easier to stream with Beam becoming a feature on both Xbox One and Windows 10. Performance of PC will be improved with the upcoming Game Mode for Windows 10. And lastly, Arena will release on Xbox Live, allowing users to play in organized tournaments, bringing eSports to everyone.
For those who enjoy streaming their games, the team at Xbox is building Beam as a feature for Xbox One and Windows 10 to make it as quick and easy as possible. Beam will connect to your Xbox Live account with no extra software needed to stream. On Windows 10, this feature can be accessed by pressing Windows + G to pull up the Game bar and clicking the broadcast button. On Xbox One, you will be able to stream with one simple button press from inside the Guide.
As leaked earlier this month, Game Mode will enhance the performance of games on Windows 10. Windows Insiders will begin to see some of the visual elements for Game Mode this week, with the feature becoming fully operational shortly after.
Every Xbox One is also getting an update to the Guide to make it faster when completing common tasks. The newly enhanced Guide can be pulled up by pressing the Xbox button on your controller once. It will be an overlay on the left side of your screen no matter what you are doing. If you’re someone who multitasks on Xbox a lot, it should get easier soon. The GameDVR feature is being tweaked to let users record clips, adjust recording length, and access captures directly in the Guide. A new achievement tracking overlay, Gamerscore leaderboard, Cortana design, and controls for background music are also coming.
New tournaments are being added to Arena including those from professional tournament organizers like ESL and FACEIT. Players will be able to create their own Arena tournaments starting with World of Tanks and Killer Instinct, with more titles to be supported in the future.
Updates to the Activity feed and improvements to Clubs and Looking For Group are meant to help people stay in touch with friends and help them connect with others. These include better moderator tools for Clubs and the ability to share LFG posts in your feed.
More surprises and features from the Creators Update will be shared soon.
Source: Xbox Wire
Jennifer is a games journalist, former games journalist and PR Manager at Gearbox. They contributed 234 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: went on to write for Windows Central and later managed PR for Gearbox Software.