Microsoft revealed today that UWP games will gain access to expanded system resources with the release of the Fall Creators Update. The net result? These Store-based game titles should be more full-featured and powerful on both Windows 10 and Xbox One.

“Since the advent of consoles, developers have asked for ways to create games for one platform that you could run anywhere,” Microsoft’s Clint Moon writes. “With the release of the Expanded Resources feature in the Fall Creators Update, we are taking the industry closer to that goal than it has ever been before.”

What this means, practically speaking, is that developers will now have access to “6 exclusive cores, 5 GB of RAM and full access to the GPU.” Previously, these games were limited to 2-4 cores, 1 GB of RAM, and 45 percent of the GPU.

As Microsoft notes, the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) games model was originally designed to be lightweight because these titles share system resources with other apps on both Windows 10 and Xbox One. These restrictions (or capabilities, I guess) do not apply to full-fledged Xbox Live apps on either platform, of course.

But this does mean that even more casual games can be more elaborate and full-featured now.

“Coming this fall, UWP games published through the Windows Store to Xbox One consoles such as Fallout Shelter by Bethesda Softworks, games in the [email protected] program, or games in the Xbox Live Creators Program will be able to access the expanded resources,” Moon explains. “UWP game developers get both a performance boost and a much larger sandbox in which to dream, build, and play.”

Tagged with UWP