Mike Ybarra, head of platform engineering for Xbox, has revealed some of the gaming-oriented improvements coming to the Windows 10 Creators Update later this year.

Chief among the changes is a new "Game Mode" that will improve the performance of games—both traditional Win32 games and new UWP (Universal Windows Platform) games from the Windows Store. Hints of this mode have appeared in recent Insider Preview builds of Windows, but it's still not clear what the mode actually does or how it does it. Ybarra's post confirms that the feature is coming, saying that it's a "big update" for Windows, but he doesn't reveal what the mode will actually do to improve performance.

On the Xbox One, the Guide is being made instantly accessible with just a single press of the Xbox button. It's also being enhanced, including the ability to start recording GameDVR clips and change the recorded length. Background music controls are being added, and Cortana will have a new design.

The other improvements that are coming with the Creators Update have been described in public before, with Ybarra offering slightly more detail than we've had previously. As previously announced, Windows 10 and Xbox One are both going to integrate streaming to Beam, the streaming service Microsoft bought in 2016. This will use an Xbox Live account and require no additional software, allowing any game—again, whether it be traditional Win32 or new UWP—to be streamed with minimal effort.

Xbox Live is being enhanced to make it easier to find and share with friends, for example by allowing Looking For Groups posts to be shared in your feed when you're looking for people to play with. Xbox Live Arena will integrate both professional tournaments, such as those organized by ESL and FACEIT, and allow creation of private tournaments with friends and members of your Club.