Microsoft promised that Windows 10 would be designed with games in mind and interact with the Xbox One in a whole new way, and the company didn't disappoint at the consumer preview event. Xbox head Phil Spencer revealed the Xbox App, which will come pre-installed as part of Windows 10, which puts your Xbox Live friends feed on any PC.
It lists all the games you play across all your devices, syncs messages between console and computer, and shows the friend feed for sharing images, messages and video clips with your friends. Most impressively for Xbox gamers, Windows 10 will be able to stream gameplay from your console over a local network - meaning you'll be able to carry on that epic Halo session even if someone else wants to use the TV.
Windows 10 will support DirectX 12 natively at launch, which should require half the resources of DirectX11 - making it ideal for low-power devices, hybrids and laptops as well as mobiles and tablets. Spencer said it should increase game performance by up to 50%, as well as cut the power consumption of similar scenes in DirectX11 by half. This will come as welcome news for mobile game developers, and Spencer said that hundreds of studios are already taking advantage of what DirectX12 has to offer, including Epic and Unity.
Crossplay will be arriving with Fable Legends, letting PC and Xbox One players join up and enter Albion together on the same servers. You'll be able to enter a friend's game straight from the Activity Feed on the app's homepage.
Whatever you play, a new Windows+G shortcut will bring up a video capture UI for recording gameplay clips, with automatic saving of the last 30 seconds of gameplay. As soon as you've recorded your clip, you'll be taken back into the Xbox app so you can edit and share it on your Activity Feed. Even old games will support it, as Spencer showed how it worked with Sid Meier's Civilisation Beyond Earth, which was released in October 2014.
Windows 10 will be heading to Xbox One too, although Microsoft won't be revealing the full details until GDC later in the year.