2022 was an incredible year for PC gaming. We’ve been very fortunate to have partners who bring amazing games to PC Game Pass such as: A Plague Tale: Requiem (on the first day!), Persona 5 Royaland the release of the full game version of Grounded. All of these games and hundreds more are included in the Xbox app on PC, and I look forward to releasing our final update for the Xbox app on PC as the year draws to a close.
Before we get to what’s new, I’d like to thank everyone in our community for your ongoing feedback and discussions to make the PC gaming experience even better. We’ll be back in 2023 with more updates and more games, but now let’s recap what updates you can see now!
Riot games now available with Xbox Game Pass
As we announced earlier today, exclusive Riot Games benefits are now available to all Xbox Game Pass members. You can find Valorant, League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, and Legends of Runeterra in the Xbox app on PC. First, choose which game you want to download and play, then follow the prompts to link your Game Pass and Riot accounts. We’re excited for members to be able to play Riot games on PC with your Game Pass benefits!
Providing a faster and more responsive app
This year we continued to improve the performance and reliability of the Xbox app. With the latest updates, the app now starts up to 40% faster. We’ve also made fixes to the Game Pass tab so it loads up to 30% faster and is more responsive when browsing games.
Game installation and management functions
In February, we introduced a number of features to improve PC Game Pass game installation and meet PC gamer expectations. This includes features such as accessing local game files, installing to any directory, moving games between drives, making it easier to modify games, and verifying and repairing installations.
We rolled them out in June PC Bootstrapper, which gives developers a consistent and easy way to integrate features like Xbox services and game saves, communicate game launch status, ensure the installed game is up to date, and more. This helps to offer the best experiences to the players.
We also strive to improve the reliability of game downloads and installs with each update. With the September update, we saw that player reports of games not downloading or not installing successfully were reduced by almost half, and we continue to see increasing success rates for players downloading, installing, and launching games month over month. We’ve also added notifications when Gaming Services updates are required so the app is always up to date for the best gaming experience.
Make it easier to discover great games
We’ve continuously updated the app to make it easier for you to discover the games you’ll love. You can see how well a game is running on your PC before you download it with the Game Performance Fit Indicator, and we’ve partnered with HowLongToBeat so you can see how long you’re running for most PC Game Pass estimates will need to complete a game games.
We’ve also made updates to make it easier to find your next game. Trailers, screenshots, and game descriptions are available at a glance at the top of game detail pages, and also show developer news for most games. We’ve changed the layout of the Xbox app on PC to make it easier to find new games, including more collections to explore, games front and center at the top of the tab, and improved search accuracy. We also introduced navigation improvements to find more games to play. All navigation is in the sidebar and the queue helps you easily track game installs so you can jump right in and play.
Thank you from our team for another great year of gaming. Please continue to share your comments on the Feedback Hub, via Twitter, or on the Xbox Insiders Reddit.
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