Microsoft has announced the Xbox Game Pass functionality FastStart, which allows Xbox games to be launched faster during the download. Microsoft also confirms that it has a service for streaming games and working on new Xbox consoles.

With FastStart users can open and play a game twice as fast, according to Microsoft , after downloading ‘only a fraction’ of the files. With the help of machine learning, the service identifies which parts are to be downloaded first for a playable display. The service requires a download speed of at least 20Mbit / s and there is a list of English-language games that Microsoft supports. The company promises to extend the list in the future, including to other languages.

The Game Pass collection has also been expanded with the titles Fallout 4, The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited and Tom Clancy’s The Division. Furthermore, Warhammer: Vermintide 2, Ashen, Afterparty, Phoenix Point, Forza Horizon 4, Crackdown 3, Gears 5 and Halo: The Master Chief Collection will have to come to the service this year.

Microsoft confirmed that its Gaming Cloud Team is working on a game stream service to different types of devices. Rumors about it date back to 2013 , but so far streaming options have been limited to streaming Xbox One games to Windows 10 PCs. With the new service, Microsoft will compete with PlayStation Now from Sony and GeForce Now from Nvidia. Microsoft also announced to work on the architecture of new Xbox consoles and to investigate the use of artificial intelligence in games. The company did not give details about this further.

Microsoft used the E3 presentation to try to remove concerns that the Xbox is not getting enough of its own games. The console is very different from the PlayStation 4, but Microsoft announced to add five game studios to Microsoft Studios to change this. These include the new Studio The Initiative , led by Darrell Gallagher, who was formerly Crystal Dynamics CEO of The Tomb Raider games.

In addition, Microsoft brings the British developer Playground Games of, among others, Forza Horizon 4 in its ranks, Ninja Theory of Hellblade comes to the company, Undead Labs of State of Decay becomes a Microsoft studio and the intention is that Compulsion Games from We Happy Few is added as Microsoft Studio.

Microsoft Xbox E3 2018