Microsoft has rolled out a new feature for their Xbox gamers playing on their Windows 11 PCs.
As reported by The Verge, the company has launched Microsoft Edge Game Assist. This does not replace the Xbox Game Bar, but is more like a free add-on, that runs on your Microsoft Edge browser. It appears as a widget that opens up to offer links to guides out on the open web.
The Verge explains that to install Game Assist, you have to go to your Edge browser and enter its settings. Microsoft Edge’s senior product manager William Devereux shared this message:
“The initial preview of Game Assist offers contextual tips and guides for a selection of popular PC games while we optimize the experience based on your feedback.
We’ll add tips and guides for even more popular games throughout the preview and over time. In the meantime, you can still use Game Assist to browse your favorite guides or other websites while playing any game.”
To be clear, when Devereaux says the tips and guides they get are contextual, what they mean is that Game Assist will use the browsing data from your Edge browser to figure out what sites you go to to find tips and guides. Since it is based on the Edge browser, it also supports ad blockers and other extensions.
In the demo that Microsoft provided, a Hellblade 2 player opens up Game Assist from the Game Bar. Doing this makes the widget appear at the right of the screen, complete with a search bar on top, buttons linking to sites like IGN, HowLongToBeat, TrueAchievements, and Xbox Wire, and also gives previews of guides from those sites.
In the future, they plan to add features like keyboard shortcuts, picture-in-picture, and the ability to add a tab.
As to how this all compares to the Steam overlay Microsoft is copying? To be quite honest, Microsoft is promising an overall superior experience, in every way. Steam’s built in-browser has notoriously needed improving for years. While many Steam gamers are satisfied with looking for guides within Steam’s community and forums, it just doesn’t compare with just using the same websites you were already looking at when you were web browsing before you played your game.
And it also promises a better experience than Xbox gamers get playing the game from their Xbox consoles themselves. Well, it would be better, unless you prefer to just look this information up on your phone next to you. But Microsoft’s effort is not for naught, because these additional options make the experience better for everybody.
