It looks like Microsoft isn't waiting for their Xbox and Bethesda Showcase this weekend to drop some gaming news. Microsoft's Edge browser is getting some upgrades for its desktop app that also focuses on Xbox Cloud Gaming. However, to be fair, I think it's safe to assume that Xbox Game Pass and cloud gaming will most likely come up a few times over the next couple of days.
The built-in Clarity Boost will make "gameplay from the cloud look sharper and clearer when playing in the Microsoft Edge browser on Windows," according to its blog post. What this means is that streaming games from the Xbox Cloud Gaming library on Game Pass will look better on Edge than on any other browser.
Microsoft is also adding an efficiency mode to Edge that'll automatically reduce resource usage along with a new personalized gaming home page with guides, live streams, and other gaming content for the games you follow.
If you're a play-games-in-a-small-browser-window-while-my-boss-turns-their-back type of person, there's a new Games menu that'll feature a bunch of free time-killing games like Solitaire, Asteroids, and Microsoft Jewel. The fact that Microsoft is working to improve performance for windowed games pretty much tells me I should be playing more video games at work.
I'll be sure to see how games actually look with Clarity Booster when it comes to Edge and see how it compares to streaming on Chrome or Safari, which is how I was streaming Fortnite at work. If Clarity Booster improves the picture quality even slightly, I'll take it.
That wasn't the only bit of Xbox Cloud Gaming news Microsoft dropped this week. Later this month, some Samsung smart TVs will support Xbox Cloud Streaming via the Xbox app so you'll be able to play Xbox games like Halo Infinite without connecting a console nor PC to your TV.
