The Windows 10 leveled game bar could eventually give Discord real competition

The offer of Microsoft on PC is in a strange and transitory place. I heard for years at this point, how the internal policy between the top echelons of the Xbox and Windows actively prevented Microsoft from improving the basic gaming features on PC, such as the Microsoft Store Windows Store 10. The internal thrust to the platform Universal Windows immutable form (UWP) ultimately resulted in an application store that was not ready for the big AAA games, although it's much better now, catalog and discoverability aspects leave a lot to be desired.

Beyond the Microsoft Store, the Xbox app for Windows 10 also managed to disappoint. Although Microsoft is in the early stages of creating online gaming communities, even dating back to MSN Game Zone in the late '90s, Redmond could not stop Discord's dizzying rise, despite the fact that he owned Skype and Xbox Live. The Xbox app for Windows 10 supports community creation, messaging and voice, but it's so slow and clunky, with no basic features, that the rise of Discord was almost inevitable . The new Windows 10 game bar is the first real sign that Microsoft is taking this aspect of its gaming network a little more seriously.

Related: How to join the Windows Gaming Insider Flight Ring

Honestly, the new Windows 10 game bar looks more like a dashboard than a "game bar", totally superimposed on Windows 10 at the system level, rather than being linked to specific windows, as was the case during his previous incarnation. Tap Windows Key + G to invoke the overlay from anywhere in Windows, giving you access to its wide range of features.

More importantly, fast and lightweight, it requires minimal system resources.

With the help of the new Windows 10 game bar, you can perform the same tasks as before, such as direct broadcast in Mixer and the capture of game clips and screenshots, but a whole range of new features. You can now control and browse Spotify multimedia content without leaving your game, sending messages, and chatting online on Xbox Live. much faster than the existing Xbox app, and check out the handy performance monitors and a sound mixer for a good measure.

More importantly, fast and lightweight, it requires minimal system resources. Although the results vary depending on your usage, when you are simply idle, the Windows 10 game bar takes up about 50 MB of RAM, compared with around 250 MB for Discord and about 200 MB for Steam. Even by setting the game bar to record footage, the use of RAM only surpasses about 67 MB, with negligible impact on the processor. The Game DVR service for cutting the last 30 seconds of footage reserves about 250 MB of RAM, but it can be easily disabled in the settings if you wish, reducing its footprint to zero.

Beyond system resources, the game bar is also highly customizable. If you do not use Spotify integration, you can simply disable it, for example. Closing each widget also reduces the clutter of resources on your PC. You can reduce it to the essentials if you wish. The modularity of the platform should lend itself to the addition of new features without allowing it to inflate.

Can he really replace Discord?

Discord has become the de facto community tool for the entire video game industry. Microsoft uses it itself for its communities, the biggest streamers and game influencers use it, and groups of users use it. It is easy to use, offers an impressive range of online chat tools and content sharing, and is faster than competing choices, including the Xbox app for Windows 10. Its interest in tools Community also makes it a better option than Skype for many players. , which has seen its dominance eroded by the rise of competing messaging and calling services.

It is crucial that Microsoft take this aspect of its platform more seriously.

For now, the Windows 10 gamebar update is only available for preview for Xbox Insider Hub users. Even then, modules for Xbox Live messages and group voice chats are listed as beta in the application itself. Even at this early stage, they are pretty polite, fast and do exactly what you expect from them. They even have a permanent overlay option, similar to Discord, that enlightens users when they are chatting.

There are some bugs here and there, as well as layout features and missing features. For example, it does not seem possible to change the privacy settings of a voice call, and there are several menus that you can develop that simply do not have any options (yet), but it does not matter. is a first effort really encouraging. . It is already far better to use the Xbox Windows 10 application, with centered notifications and faster access to the most important features.

It lacks elements such as support from the Xbox club community, which he would need to really become a lighter alternative to Discord, but there is no reason to think that this would not happen. The Xbox clubs themselves lack many of the basic features that Discord enjoys, such as sharing images, gifs, custom community emotes, etc., but the integration that it has within Xbox Live gives it some benefits. Being able to send "Group Search" ads that allow you to instantly access games, to set up competitive tournaments, is aggressively underused, but I think part of this underutilization is the difficulty of access. On Xbox, you have to navigate and type with the help of a PC-based controller, Xbox clubs are buried in a bulky UWP application that just does not fit. The Windows 10 game bar seems ready to change all that.

If Microsoft can justify the use of the game bar, integrated with Windows 10 and accessible via a quick keyboard shortcut from nowhereIt may be a great tool for people who do not want to install a separate program. This is not really able to provide a great alternative to Discord aujourd & # 39; hui, given the lightness of the features and the lack of support for Xbox clubs, but if Microsoft is as serious as it seems, these features are probably on the way.

Microsoft wants to regain that trust and probably knows that there is still a lot to do.

I do not think it's a coincidence that Microsoft has under-sold the new game bar when it was announced last week. They have not touched many of its features, they have announced in a small blog post discreet enough. It is clear that these efforts represent a grandiose vision of a more coherent game strategy on the part of Microsoft, focused on computers. The new font type and rounded edges probably provide a clue to the future design language of next-generation Xbox "Scarlett" consoles. Microsoft wants to regain that trust and probably knows that there is still a lot to do.

While Microsoft is about to bring the Xbox Game Pass to PC, along with the expected overhaul of its ill-conceived PC game store, Project xCloud for mobile devices and low-end laptops, and a new Xbox hardware generation, social and community features, systems that will tie everything together. It is crucial that Microsoft take this aspect of its platform more seriously, especially considering its investment in Mixer streaming and beyond. Fortunately, these early signs are incredibly encouraging.

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