In a bid to improve overall gaming experience on their Windows 10 operating system, Microsoft will introduce a new feature on their next big OS update. "Game Mode" is Microsoft's take on a modern, console-like take on the CPU and GPU of any given user system, so long as they are running the as of yet upcoming "Creators" update for Windows 10.

Essentially, "Game Mode" is an optional setting which dedicates more of the available CPU and GPU resources to a given gaming application - whether on Windows' new UWP or the good-old Win32 games (though Microsoft was clear in that they expect the feature to have more of an impact on UWP games simply because "Game Mode" then has more information on the game's requirements and performance profiles). This means that less of your system's resources will be available to and used by background tasks, and should make itself visible not so much on peak frame-rates, but on a arguably more important metric: a more consistent, less "stuttery" frame-rate.

An upcoming build of Windows 10 operating system, build 14997, reportedly features a component ominously named "gamemode.dll." This sparked off speculation of the operating system featuring a special runlevel that's optimized for PC gaming. It's likely that in game mode, the operating system prioritizes CPU, memory, and GPU allocation to games being run, and sheds unwanted processes to free up memory.

Sources tell "Windows Central" that the game mode could allocate hardware resources to a game with the efficiency of an Xbox One console, which means only the bare minimum services needed to correctly play the game will be enabled. At this point it's unclear if the Game Mode will benefit only games built on the UWP, or even the vast Win32 ecosystem of games distributed by Steam, Origin, and UPlay.

Tim Sweeney, a lead developer with Epic Games, behind the industry-leading Unreal game engine, once again raised concerns in a recent interview with print-magazine "Edge," that Microsoft is systematically killing digital distribution platform Steam, by deliberately eroding the reliability and longevity of the Win32 programming interface for PC versions of Windows, in favor of its UWP (universal Windows platform), through updates to the OS.

Microsoft, Sweeney argues, is carefully avoiding big changes to the way third-party software is distributed and used on Windows, but is definitely seen to be taking small strategic steps, "sneaky maneuvers," that could lead to Windows Store either monopolizing all third-party software distribution on the platform, or worse, making it the only way you can get third-party apps. The rising reliability issues affecting Steam, a Win32 API-based platform that distributes Win32 software, Sweeney claims are telltale signs of that dark future of the PC platform. Microsoft's biggest argument in favor of UWP is that software is inherently more secure, since it's sandboxed (covered in abstraction layers and virtualized by the OS) even further.