For the past few months, Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE) has been offered to PCs and mobile consoles such as the ROG Xbox Ally. It brings the Xbox console interface experience to a Windows 11 PC. At GDC earlier this morning, Microsoft announced that FSE will be launched as Xbox Mode this April.
Through Xbox Mode, Windows 11 computers will launch directly to the Xbox console interface. This saves up to 2GB of RAM because only the system required for Xbox game mode is launched. Xbox Mode is designed to be accessed and controlled using a game controller with users not needing to connect a mouse or keyboard.
There are several screens for the game store, installed games, Game Pass and third-party game stores. Just press a button and the game will launch quickly like Xbox. After the game session is over, the owner can press the Windows + Tab keys to launch the Windows desktop. This is done without the need to restart the PC.
This is the vision of the future of gaming on Windows 11 as it provides a glimpse of the future of Project Helix announced last week. Regarding Project Helix, Microsoft confirmed that it uses AMD chips and that the Alpha development kit will be shipped to developer studios in 2027.
Interesting about Project Helix is the use of the Game Development Kit (GDK) which allows developers to produce video games for PC and Xbox simultaneously. This will reduce development time and more importantly cost. GDK also makes it easier for older games from the Xbox Series X/S console to be played on future consoles through backward compatibility features.
