Xbox bringing new gaming features to Microsoft Edge

Xbox bringing new gaming features to Microsoft Edge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Xbox is announcing that everyone’s favorite gaming platform, Microsoft Edge, is getting a number of new features that prioritize cloud gaming integration and personalization for the blue browser. Microsoft has been consistently growing and improving support for Xbox Cloud Gaming across multiple platforms and is clearly taking steps to optimize this service on browsers by providing it with more gaming-forward features.

Some of the additions include a personalized gaming homepage that provides easier access to the Xbox Cloud Gaming library and a built-in efficiency mode that reduces resource usage of the browser when a game is launched. Edge will also be getting “Clarity Boost” to help improve the fidelity of games streamed over the cloud. Edge users can also look forward to a built-in menu with browser-based games like Microsoft Solitaire and Atari Asteroids.

New gaming tab in Microsoft Edge.Image: Microsoft

On its own, this announcement doesn’t sound very exciting, but it gets a little more interesting when you consider that Steam Deck users currently need to route through an instance of Microsoft Edge to access Xbox Game Pass. In theory, these changes should help improve cloud gaming performance but feel largely like cosmetic changes to Microsoft’s browser.