Microsoft is increasingly showing the direction in which it wants to develop the Xbox brand. The company is preparing a device even more connected to PC, and according to leaks, Xbox Project Helix will be a "computer offering a console experience thanks to Xbox Mode."
The corporation has taken the first important step – the solution is starting to appear on computers.
Users have noticed that in the Xbox app on PC, the name Xbox Full Screen has been replaced with Xbox Mode. This is how Microsoft is developing the feature announced at GDC, which should appear in Windows 11 in April. In practice, it's about an interface prepared for playing with a gamepad – "something that should resemble a console Xbox and make it easier to launch games without the typical Windows chaos."
The solution should become an answer to Steam Big Picture, but the company wants to go further. Xbox Mode should facilitate access not only to games in the Xbox ecosystem, but also to projects from Steam, EGS, and other launchers. It's about creating a unified gaming center.
This is especially important in the context of the Project Helix strategy. If the future "hardware" will work like a PC with a console experience, then Xbox Mode will become the foundation of this concept. At the same time, Microsoft is not forgetting about classic consoles: users have started receiving a cloud save synchronization check function. This is another signal that the boundary between Xbox and PC is becoming less noticeable.
