Take that, thing that’s still technically sold a 20th of what we have!
In the wake of the news that Valve is preparing a version of SteamOS for the ROG Ally, Xbox has decided to strike back.
Microsoft is preparing an update for their Xbox app that will introduce a new compact mode for the game bar. This mode will improve compatibility with devices that run Windows.
This does make a fair bit of sense for them. While SteamOS ships natively on the Steam Deck, many other handheld PCs, like the ROG Ally, ship with Windows by default. And, as it turns out, that’s not exactly conducive to the use cases for these kinds of devices. By and large, it’s not exactly optimized for devices with small touchscreens and a game controller as the default input.
So, with Valve bringing SteamOS to one of the other big handheld devices, Xbox is taking a proactive approach to avoid being left in the cold, as far as the market is concerned.
The Xbox Game Bar, for the unaware, allows users to check your online friends list, start and manage game recordings, and keep an eye on system performance, among other things. While the Compact mode was a previous update, the changes to the Game Bar is new, and will improve the user experience significantly by streamlining the entire interface.
In short, the idea is for the app to adopt the ease of use of navigating the Xbox dashboard and bring that to the Xbox app.
All that said, the update is currently only live for Xbox Insiders right now. Microsoft tends to do this to get feedback and fine tune anything that needs it before an update properly goes out to all users.
Source: PCGamesN
About Author
