By Announcement: Deploying currently to Insiders
Announcement []: This has just commenced rolling out to Xbox Insiders today!
Xbox has a “Windows Gaming: Full screen experience” manual on the official Microsoft support page that elaborates on the setup process, and there’s additionally a article on the official Xbox Wire blog regarding this.
We’ll conclude with a selection from that article:
“In addition to handhelds, the Xbox full screen experience is now accessible in preview for various Windows 11 PC configurations, including laptops, desktops, and tablets, tailored for the PC experience.”
“The Xbox full screen experience presents a controller-navigable UI that delivers an engaging, console-like experience to Windows 11 PC formats. Crafted for controller-first navigation, it offers a gaming-optimized, full-screen environment where players can effortlessly browse and initiate titles from their game libraries, including the most frequented PC storefronts. A powerful Task Switcher permits swift transitions between games and applications, ensuring a fluid experience.”
Original Narrative: You’ve likely noticed our discussions about the “Xbox full-screen experience” on the ROG Xbox Ally – a stylish term for the interface and overall dashboard that has been utilized by the ASUS handheld since its launch last month.
At that time, Microsoft indicated that this dashboard would extend to other Windows handhelds in the future, and that’s precisely what’s transpired today – it is now officially accessible for other non-Xbox Ally handhelds as of November 21st.
You can observe evidence of this in the image below:
What you can also notice, however, is that the ROG Xbox Ally‘s interface will be arriving on Windows PCs as well. It’s reported to be rolling out “soon” for Xbox Insider participants (to be succeeded by a broader release), which indicates everyone possessing a Windows 11 PC will experience the “Xbox full-screen experience” and its advantages.
On the ROG Xbox Ally, those advantages encompass a rapid boot-up, swift access to your gaming libraries without needing to even enter the Windows desktop, an intuitive switching mechanism allowing instantaneous app transitions, and the elimination of background processes that could hinder your PC performance while gaming – in essence, the Xbox full-screen experience is specifically optimised for gamers.
We’re optimistic that all of this will translate well when it launches for standard PCs in the forthcoming future, but the mention of it being “available with Xbox and other applications” raises our concerns on whether it will be as deeply integrated as it is for Windows handhelds.
This has the potential to be transformative – it certainly has for the ROG Ally series.
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Fraser is the News Editor at Pure Xbox, where he dedicates his time to reporting on the most significant stories in the realm of Xbox and beyond.