Beam streaming, Game Mode, and more officially announced for Xbox One and Windows 10 Creators Update

After yesterday afternoon’s Windows 10 Insider build launch, we reported that Game Mode had made its way into the Xbox app on Windows 10. Now Xbox’s Head of Platform Engineering Mike Ybarra written an explanation of both new features, as well as other improvements coming for Xbox One and Windows 10 in the Creators Update that focus on gaming.
First, Ybarra addressed Game Mode. Like we wrote yesterday, Game Mode will minimize background tasks’ resource usage on Windows 10 so that a game will have more resources to utilize for an overall better experience and smoother gaming session. He notes that Insider will also see visual elements for the upcoming ability to stream directly to Beam, the super-low-latency live-streaming platform Microsoft acquired in August last year. This feature will be accessible right from the Xbox Game Bar and will let anyone with an Xbox Live account sign up or sign into Beam and start streaming right then and there.
Also coming for Xbox One owners in the Creators Update will be an overall speed improvement in the Guide interface so quick tasks actually are quick to do, so multitasking will be more fluid and using your Xbox will just be a faster experience. Ybarra also mentions that Xbox owners will, alongside the new Guide experience, see a new Achievement tracking overlay, Gamerscore Leaderboard, a new design for Cortana, and background music controls.
Also coming for Microsoft’s gaming community is an improved experience while using Xbox Live’s Activity Feed, Clubs, and Looking For Group. Clubs will give moderators tools, and LFG will allow you to share LFG posts in your own feed so friends can see you need one more for a multiplayer match or a partner for Grand Theft Auto 5’s online Heists. These features will also be available to Windows 10 users via the Xbox app, obviously.
The final aspect Ybarra highlights for the Creators Update is an improvement to Arena. Arena, where you can set up competitions among friends and family, will integrate with and add tournaments from professional organizers like the ESL and FACEIT. The first games to get these new tournaments and ability to create custom tournaments will be World of Tanks and Killer Instinct, but more title will be supported in the future. In these custom tournaments, match and game results footage will be automatically saved so you can make end-credit highlight clips to share to your and your friends’ feeds.
All of this comes three months before we expect the Creators Update to launch in early April this year and if we learn more before then we’ll be sure to let you know, so stay tuned to Rectify Gaming for that coverage.
Source: Xbox Wire