Microsoft Edge Is Invading Your PC Games

Microsoft is now previewing Game Assist, a new Microsoft Edge feature that lets you browse the web without navigating away from your games.

Before we dive into Game Assist, let’s reintroduce ourselves to the Windows Game Bar. Introduced in the Windows 10 era, Game Bar is an oft-neglected and somewhat poorly named game overlay system akin to Steam Overlay. It lets you see CPU and GPU usage, capture a screen recording, and message friends who are logged into Xbox without navigating away from your game.

The new Game Assist feature adds an Edge browser window to your Game Bar overlay. So, you can pull up the overlay with Win+G, look up game guides or other information, and hit Win+G to go back to your game. There’s also an option to pin the Game Assist web browser to your screen while the Game Bar is closed, which may be useful to those who like to watch step-by-step game guides on YouTube.

Microsoft says that Game Assist can automatically identify what you’re playing and suggest tips, tricks, or guides. However, this functionality is currently limited to Baldur’s Gate 3, Diablo IV, Fortnite, Hellblade II: Senua’s Saga, League of Legends, Minecraft, Overwatch 2, Roblox, and Valorant. Game identification and automatic guide suggestions are also far more rudimentary than you might assume—Game Assist just shows you a couple of article and video suggestions while you’re on the Edge browser home page.

Anyway, one of the most interesting things about Game Assist is its ability to access bookmarks, passwords, and other information saved to your Edge browser. If you need to autofill your information on a website while in-game, Game Assist will comply. I’m not sure how often this feature will come in handy, but it’s not something I expected to see in an in-game overlay.

As for how useful Game Assist will be to gamers—well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out. I suspect that it’ll primarily appeal to gamers who use a single computer monitor and prefer Microsoft Edge over other browsers. There’s also the question of whether Game Assist can convince me to stop looking things up on my phone. In my 15 years of using Steam, I still forget that the Shift+Tab overlay exists, so I might be a lost cause.

Microsoft Edge Game Assist is now available in preview to Edge Insiders with Edge Browser Beta version 132 or later. Naturally, it requires Windows 11. To test Game Assist, install and open the latest Edge Beta release, go to “Settings and more (‘…’),” enter “Settings,” search for “Game Assist” in the search bar, and click “Install Widget.” Game Assist should also work in the latest Edge Dev release, though Microsoft says that it’s more stable in Edge Beta.

Source: Microsoft