Microsoft Edge gets new features dedicated to gaming

Internet Explorer may be officially dead and buried recently, but Microsoft continues to push to impose its successor, Edge. Despite the sad reputation it inherited, it must be admitted that this browser is very, very far from being as catastrophic as its predecessor; no offense to the refractory, it is even more than correct! But it will take much more to convince the public to change its habits and ignore its reputation. And for that, Microsoft has bet on… video games?

The Redmond company has just announced a list of exclusive features, all designed for gamers and accessible directly from a new “Gaming” browser homepage – even if technically it is simply a tab from Edge’s default home page. A detail that is important, since the majority of browser users have probably defined their own homepage…

On the page in question, we immediately notice an obvious affiliation with the interface of the Xbox, Microsoft’s game console. There are news, guides, streams, tournaments, as well as information on games that will be released soon. Everything is divided into different blocks that are now part of the firm’s visual identity. To access it, simply update the browser and then click on the Gaming tab.

Better quality streaming and better resource management

Microsoft has also added Clarity Boost, which is available to all users after a few months of testing. It’s a feature billed as an oversampling technology; it should make it possible to significantly improve the quality of the images streamed within the framework of Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Finally, Microsoft has also added a new Efficiency mode which should allow games to run more fluidly by limiting the consumption of browser resources, particularly in terms of memory. This looks like a tailor-made argument to poach followers of Chrome, which is known to devour RAM at every meal.

Will these arguments be able to convince the public to switch back to the default browser? Not certain that this will be enough to change user habits; on the other hand, Edge continues to progress, and it will be interesting to observe its further evolution now that Internet Explorer is officially a thing of the past.