Surprise! Here’s a quick look at Xbox’s new PC app, potentially available to Xbox Insiders before the end of the year.
Over the summer, Microsoft began testing a new Xbox Cloud Gaming interface called Bastion, which aimed to bring the user experience closer to the Xbox Series X|S console. The Xbox PC app currently looks very different from this general identity and has various performance issues, especially when loading into large libraries or the general Xbox PC games store.
This week, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma shared plans to elevate Microsoft’s gaming offerings on PC, and here’s a first look at at least part of what that looks like.
Microsoft is preparing to ship the interface below, named Garrison, in the near future. I had access to an early version of the app this evening and thought I’d give you a quick overview.
Look on it
In the video above, I give you a quick guide to the new app’s interface on PC, which includes designs for the mouse, keyboard, and controller. You can set this app as the default home screen when loading in Windows 11’s new “Game Mode” setting, and it will use controller scaling by default – ideal for devices like the Xbox Ally.
First impressions for me revolve around performance. It’s much faster than the previous app, especially when it comes to loading my extensive library of over 1,400 Xbox titles over the years. It’s much easier to see when something is actually installable now, or just compatible with streaming from Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Navigating between game lists is also much simpler. There are no longer two separate pages for games, and the Play Store page and the game page now share a single interface.
For the most part, there aren’t a ton of new features on offer yet. It seems to be all about improving performance and usability.
Xbox’s PC offering has moved significantly away from Steam, as Steam offers many more community tools, developer dialogue systems, and more visible reviews. Steam arguably also has better curation, and while store pages on this version of the app aren’t fully implemented yet, I’m looking forward to finding out if Microsoft has improved visibility for developers through this app. It would be nice if developers also had more tools to communicate with their audience on the Xbox PC app, and Microsoft has the opportunity to more deeply integrate Minecraft and its other live service games to potentially strengthen its community-building capabilities.
I suspect this version of the app could go live to Xbox Insiders on PC in the coming weeks, given that it’s already bundled with Windows 11 builds.
Microsoft has been struggling a bit this summer, restructuring its business, selling off studios and refocusing its efforts on Xbox Series X|S consoles. It’s encouraging to see that Microsoft hasn’t left its Xbox PC efforts behind either. This week it announced a huge partnership with NVIDIA for its new RTX Spark Arm laptop line, which includes the Surface Laptop Ultra, which is a gaming powerhouse in its own right. Microsoft also announced Xbox XP this week, focused on building player loyalty and community outside of its traditional console channels. I wonder if the Xbox PC app will also play a role here.
Either way, let me know what you think of the new Xbox PC app in the comments, and what you’d like to see added to Xbox PC in the future!
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Gn tech
