But with today’s announcements, we at least have a general sense of how it’ll work and how gamers will interact with it. There still aren’t any nitty-gritty details on what Microsoft is doing to the system when Game Mode is enabled.
Microsoft says some games might be able to enable it automatically, but most aren’t able to do that right now. To turn it on, you’ll have to open up the Game Bar, go into a pop-up settings pane, and check a box enabling the currently open game to put the system into Game Mode. Game Mode largely has to be enabled on a game-by-game basis. There’ll also be a panel inside Windows 10’s settings to control Game Mode, the Game Bar, and broadcasting options. Built-in streaming to Beam is itself a new feature, too. That includes a toolbar, called the Game Bar, that you can pull up at any time by pressing “Windows + G” to get shortcuts for taking screenshots, recording video, and broadcasting to Beam (Microsoft’s Twitch competitor), among other things. Microsoft is actually building a bunch of gaming functions directly into Windows, some of which aren’t strictly part of Game Mode.
