On May 6th, Microsoft announced the “Controller bar” as a new feature for Windows 11 games. It will be available and tested on the same day for Dev and Beta subscribers to the Windows Insider Program.
The Controller bar announced this time is a new feature introduced in the Xbox Game Bar. Xbox Game Bar is a widget for games that can be called by pressing the Windows logo key + G key or the Xbox button on the Xbox controller. You can customize and display various widgets such as recording game screens, taking screenshots, displaying performance such as frame rate, and social functions.
The Controller bar will appear instead of the traditional Xbox Game Bar when you press the Xbox button on your Xbox controller while you’re not playing a game. It has a simple one-window interface that shows up to three titles of the most recently played game, along with recently used game launchers such as the Steam and Xbox apps. It seems that the game can be restarted directly from here.
Also, if you press the Windows logo key + G key while not playing the game, the most recently played games will be grouped at the left end, and the controller bar will be displayed with the icons of various settings other than the Xbox Game Bar lined up in the main. It seems that it will be done.
If you press the Windows logo key + G key or the Xbox button on the Xbox controller during gameplay, the Xbox Game Bar will be displayed as before. The Xbox Game Bar widgets are mostly used during gameplay, so it’s probably a decision to keep them simple when not playing and use them to restart the game. Regarding the UI, it is said that the ease of operation with the controller is also taken into consideration.
Controller bar is being tested for Dev and Beta subscribers to the Windows Insider Program. Development will proceed while receiving feedback from users in the future, and if official adoption is decided, it will be provided to general users as well.
