John Paul M. Joaquin Tech 06.27.2022 08:Jun AM EDT

Microsoft Wants To Make Edge a Cloud Gaming Browser — Here’s How It Will Do It

Microsoft is slowly turning Microsoft Edge into the best cloud gaming platform imaginable.

The tech giant recently released new gaming features in its built-in web browser for Windows computers. One of them allows people to stream games from the Xbox Cloud Gaming library.

Microsoft previously announced it is going "all in" on gaming, with the company mentioning that it is building a platform for the next 20 years that offers games players want on any device they want to play on.

Microsoft Edge Gaming Homepage Details

Microsoft mentioned in its announcement it has added a new gaming homepage to Microsoft Edge that would enable gamers to stream the games they want straight from the browser itself.

It is personalized to the user's interests and designed to keep them connected to the content they frequent the most, such as news, live streams, game highlights, tournaments, and upcoming and newly released games.

Users that have signed or have an Xbox account can use the homepage to access their Xbox Cloud Gaming library to play the games they want through the server. However, doing so is only possible if a user has an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership.

Microsoft Edge's gaming homepage can also give users quick access to Xbox content, such as games they might like.

Cloud gaming is an advantage for every Microsoft Edge user with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership because it allows gamers to play the latest games without worrying if their desktop or laptop can handle the game or not.

Microsoft also made Edge's gaming homepage compatible with the visual boost provided by Microsoft Clarity.

PC Gamer mentioned that a game loses some of its visual data when being streamed during cloud gaming. With Clarity's spatial upscaling enhancement, however, the game regains the visual quality it lost during streaming, providing a clear display for gamers to use anywhere.

Microsoft also added a new setting in Edge's Efficiency mode to help keep games bring streamed during cloud gaming fast and smooth by reducing browser resource usage when a PC game is launched.

Thanks to this new feature, a user does not need to close the browser to play and reopen it when they are done.

How Does Cloud Gaming Work

For those unfamiliar, cloud gaming works like an interactive live stream. A cloud gaming gamer can play a cloud gaming-capable video game as soon they buy it rather than waiting for the game to install itself to their device, according to Polygon.

The convenience is due to the game being kept in the cloud, which is a network of "super-jacked" gaming computers acting as servers in which the game a user bought lives.

A gamer who has access to the cloud can play the games he wants using a device capable of running the appropriate platform. In this case, it is Microsoft Edge.

Since the game lives in the cloud, a game's minimum and recommended requirements go out the window, and anyone can play that game regardless of whether their device is one of the most high-end gaming PC or the simplest of laptops.